UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Researchers have shown that a particularly hearty strain of bacteria nicknamed “Conan the Bacterium” could survive buried on Mars for 280 million years. Previous studies indicated that Deinococcus radiodurans could survive the harsh ionizing radiation battering the surface of Mars for as many as 1 million years by hiding under the protective Marian soil. This study shatters that previous record, dramatically increasing the chances that microscopic life forms could still be alive beneath the red planet’s surface.

The researchers also note that their findings could significantly impact preparations for the potential contamination of Mars by Earth-origin life forms and the contamination of Earth by Martian life forms. Both are serious considerations for NASA, including the recent appointment of a new Planetary Protection Officer.

SEARCHING FOR MARTIAN LIFE PAST AND PRESENT

Since NASA’s first Viking landers, scientists have been searching Mars for signs of life. Some members of those initial experiments still believe they discovered living microscopic life forms way back in 1976, even though follow-up tests were unable to confirm their tantalizing signal.

In the decades since, researchers have learned much more about the harsh radiation and arid conditions on present-day Mars, as well as the likely wet and more temperate eras in the planet’s past, shifting the hunt away from currently living organisms and toward signs of ancient life. If confirmed, this latest research may shift the pendulum back from hunting for ancient Martian fossils to looking for bacteria or other microscopic life forms still living beneath the Martian soil.

CONAN THE BACTERIUM COULD SURVIVE BENEATH MARTIAN SOIL FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS

The new study’s press release says, “When Mars’ first samples return to Earth, scientists should be on the lookout for ancient sleeping bacteria.”

Led by Michael Daly, a professor of pathology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and member of the National Academies’ Committee on Planetary Protection, the new study looked at how the harsh radiation and arid environment on Mars’s surface affect the survivability of dormant bacteria.

“There is no flowing water or significant water in the Martian atmosphere, so cells and spores would dry out,” said research team co-leader Brian Hoffman, a Professor of Chemistry from Northwestern University. “It also is known that the surface temperature on Mars is roughly similar to dry ice, so it is indeed deeply frozen.”

To mirror these conditions (-80 degrees Fahrenheit) in their lab, the researchers recreated Mars’ surface’s cold and dry conditions.

Next, the team placed six different microscopic life forms, a collection of fungi and bacteria, in their simulated Mars and subjected these carefully selected life forms to blasts of either gamma rays or protons, simulating the ionizing cosmic radiation and solar protons that regularly slam into the red planet’s surface. By adjusting the intensity, researchers were able to simulate the volume of radiation these microorganisms would encounter at three levels: on Mars’s surface, at a depth of 10cm, and finally, at a depth of 10 meters.

Unsurprisingly, the surface survival rates were measured in minutes or hours, confirming that even Earth’s hardiest organisms couldn’t live for very long on Mars. However, burying one particular dried-out bacteria, a strain nicknamed Conan the bacterium for its hardiness, beneath the Martian soil dramatically changed the results.

Deinococcus radiodurans, aka Conan the Bacterium, in a lab dish.

Credit: Michael J. Daly/USU

In fact, simply reducing the radiation levels to simulate bacteria shielded beneath 10cm of soil extended their ability to absorb radiation and still survive from hours to a staggering 1.2 million years. Furthermore, simulating burying these bacteria 10 meters below the surface upped their survivability to a whopping 280 million years. According to the researchers, this means that if life ever did exist on Mars, we may still find some of its living remnants today.

“Although D. radiodurans buried in the Martian subsurface could not survive dormant for the estimated 2 to 2.5 billion years since flowing water disappeared on Mars, such Martian environments are regularly altered and melted by meteorite impacts,” explained Daly. “We suggest that periodic melting could allow intermittent repopulation and dispersal.”

Daly went even further, pointing out that even if these intermittent repopulations did not occur and no bacteria have survived to the present day, there could still be significant evidence of ancient life on Mars.

“If Martian life ever existed, even if viable lifeforms are not now present on Mars, their macromolecules and viruses would survive much, much longer,” he said. “That strengthens the probability that, if life ever evolved on Mars, this will be revealed in future missions.”

FUTURE MISSIONS COULD HUNT FOR CURRENT MARTIAN LIFE WHILE AVOIDING CONTAMINATION

With results published in the journal Astrobiology, the researchers behind the new study say their findings have two significant implications. First, as noted, this may dramatically alter future missions searching for ancient signs of life and instead refocus efforts towards finding signs of organisms currently living beneath Mars’ surface.

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Second, and perhaps even more significant, simply demonstrating that Earth organisms could survive for hundreds of millions of years on Mars if brought there by human astronauts should inform efforts to prevent contamination of Mars by Earth’s microbes, and vice versa.

“Our model organisms serve as proxies for both forward contamination of Mars, as well as backward contamination of Earth,” explained Daly, “both of which should be avoided.”

Professor Hoffman expanded on the significance of this point, including the likely long-lived nature of such cross-contamination.

“We concluded that terrestrial contamination on Mars would essentially be permanent — over timeframes of thousands of years. This could complicate scientific efforts to look for Martian life,” said Hoffman. “Likewise, if microbes evolved on Mars, they could be capable of surviving until present day. That means returning Mars samples could contaminate Earth.”

Sounds like the beginning of a really fun (or really scary) science fiction movie.

Connect with Author Christopher Plain on Twitter @plain_fiction

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NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully located and photographed the landing site of a spacecraft recently sent to the moon by India’s space program.

Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan program, a set of moon missions launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The current mission, launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 14, includes the Vikram lunar lander and an accompanying lunar rover, Pragyan, which follow a similar pairing of lunar exploration vehicles launched in 2019 as part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

Since June 18, 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been observing the moon from its position in an eccentric mapping orbit, providing imagery crucial to the production of a 3D map of the lunar surface. Although the LRO’s mission was originally intended to last for just two years, it was extended to allow the spacecraft to continue to collect data that may help scientists understand a range of questions that include the evolution of the moon’s crust and regolith.

Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon on August 23, approximately 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole.

From its position in orbit, the LRO successfully spotted and photographed the Indian spacecraft’s landing site, which can be seen in the center of the image below as a dark spot surrounded by a lighter “halo” of white.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander can be seen as the tiny object surrounded in white at the center of this image

(Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/ASU)

The Chandrayaan-3 lander isn’t actually glowing, of course. The lighter area around it is an effect caused by the spacecraft’s rocket plume blasting away fine-grained lunar soil, resulting in the exposure of regolith with a lighter coloration, contrasted against the shadow cast by the lander.

The image was logged by NASA as frame No. M1447750764LR, comprising a region surrounding the Chandrayaan-3 lander that is close to 1,738 meters wide.

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Four days after NASA obtained the images that initially detected the Chandrayaan-3 lander, a secondary view at a 42-degree oblique or “slew angle” was also obtained.

Additional imagery of the Chandrayaan-3 mission has been made available online courtesy of the ISRO and can be viewed here.

Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on Twitter: @MicahHanks.

There are no security clearances. No heavily redacted documents. Anyone can access the files — the military reports, the videos and audio recordings, the grainy unverified photographs — and thousands of people have.