A new study on methane supports that Mars was habitable

Finding out if Mars was inhabited in the past and by whom is one of the great questions in astrophysics that the fleet of robots sent by space agencies has been trying to clarify for decades.

One of the main clues for this complex investigation is methane and, this Monday, a new study based on this gas supports the hypothesis that the red planet had the conditions to be inhabited about 3,700 million years ago.

As stated in the journal

by a team from the USA and Franci led by Boris Sauterey, the subsoil of Mars

It is believed that this type of microbe was one of the first forms of life on our own planet.

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Geology.

The InSight robot reveals the intimacies of Mars: this is how its earthquakes and its heart are

• Writing: TERESA GUERREROMadrid

The InSight robot reveals the intimacies of Mars: this is how its earthquakes and its heart are

ASTROPHYSICS.

The mystery of methane on Mars

• Writing: TERESA GUERREROMadrid

The mystery of methane on Mars

Although there is evidence to suggest that Mars harbored potential conditions for the development of life more than 3.7 billion years ago, the probability of this scenario occurring had not been quantified in detail, according to the authors, who simulated the interaction in a model between the primitive environment of Mars and an ecosystem of microorganisms that survive by consuming hydrogen and producing methane.

Their simulations showed that the Martian crust would have been a viable location for this ecosystem, as long as the surface had not been completely covered in ice.

Biomass production would have been comparable to that in the earliest oceans on Earth.

This ecosystem would have triggered a feedback event with the climate of Mars, cooling it globally by up to 40 degrees and creating less habitable conditions closer to the surface, forcing microbes to move progressively deeper into the planet's crust.

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Geology.

The InSight robot reveals the intimacies of Mars: this is how its earthquakes and its heart are

• Writing: TERESA GUERREROMadrid

The InSight robot reveals the intimacies of Mars: this is how its earthquakes and its heart are

Jorge Pla-García, a researcher at the Center for Astrobiology (CAB/CSIC-INTA) and a member of the Martian missions of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is one of the scientists who has studied Martian methane the most: "It The

first thing to make clear is that

We are detecting it on the surface with the

rover (NASA), but we do not detect any methane from orbit with the TGO probe (from ESA), that it has more advanced instrumentation to do it. It is true that TGO can only observe from 3-5km above the ground to the top of the atmosphere, that is, it does not even come close to the Martian ground where

is , "he points out. .

The Spanish scientist also underlines the difference between inhabited and habitable: "This new article says that, based on his studies with models, the subsoil of Mars probably met the conditions (we call them habitability) conducive to developing in the hypothetical case of methanogenous microorganisms having arisen, not that microorganisms probably lived".

'Curiosity' and 'Perseverance'

This aspect, Pla-García points out, is one of the most important differences between the objectives of the

and

, as we suspected,

(this does not mean that there was life in the past) .

of the planet, but rather that the conditions were adequate to sustain life in the hypothetical case of having arisen.) Now that we know that Mars was habitable in the past,

that is, clues that suggest biological activity in Mars.

last".

The results obtained in the simulations of the article published this week, he adds, "are perfectly compatible with the detections we are making today from the Martian surface with

, since the clathrate ices that we suspect exist in the Martian subsoil Although not confirmed, they could be releasing methane trapped in them during the planet's past today."

origin of methane

The results obtained by the Spanish team, Pla-García details, "would indicate that the methane in the Gale crater - a hole 5 km deep where

is located - is concentrated at night and diluted during the day. This would reconcile in splits

's nighttime methane

detections with TGO's no daytime detections (TGO cannot observe at night.) Our model indicates that it is the slope winds from the crater rims that descend at night "They would help increase the concentration of methane at night and when ascending during the day they would take the methane out of the crater. But this would create a new problem and that is that the methane has to go somewhere," he says.

One possible explanation is that "there must be a mechanism (probably chemical) of very rapid destruction of methane near the ground that destroys it shortly after it is emitted, thus preventing it from being transported to the middle and upper layers so that it can be observed by TGO and maintaining negligible levels of methane throughout the Martian atmosphere," he proposes.

This methane could have a biological or non-biological origin:

"We don't know for sure since, unfortunately,

cannot do an isotopic analysis of the methane it detects, as the concentration is very low. I dream of having more advanced instruments in the Martian soil to be able to solve the puzzle once and for all".

Is it possible that there are living microorganisms today?

"I think it is highly unlikely, at least on the surface, due to the high doses of radiation and the presence of high chlorine content in the perchlorate salts, but in the planet's past it could have been possible," says the CAB researcher.

From his point of view, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and, at the moment

. I believe that the samples of high astrobiological interest that we are collecting and putting in tubes with

and that we will bring to Earth (with laboratories far more advanced than what we have in the rovers) sometime in the next decade could give us some evidence. But we are still a long way from that. "

Looking ahead, the scientists behind the study in

have identified three sites - Hellas Planitia, Isidis Planitia and Jezero Crater, where

is researching - as the best places to look for signs of this early methanogenic life near the surface. from Mars.

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