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An experiment using simulated Martian conditions has found that perchlorates bathed in UV light would quickly kill many potential Martian bacteria:
The hope for Martian life took another blow today. As Ian Sample at The Guardian reports, a new study suggests that in the presence of ultraviolet light, perchlorates, a class of chemical compounds widespread on Mars' surface, turn deadly for bacteria.
The presence of perchlorates isn't new. Viking 1 and 2 spacecraft detected perchlorates when they landed on the Martian surface in 1976, Jeffrey Kluger reports for Time. Since then, other spacecraft have confirmed the presence of the compounds. The 2009 Phoenix lander found that perchlorates make up between 0.4 and 0.6 percent of the soil sample it collected.
While perchlorates, which are composed of chlorine and oxygen, are toxic to humans, microbes typically love the stuff. And researchers have been optimistic that their presence could support bacterial life on Mars. As Kluger reports, some bacteria on Earth use naturally occurring perchlorate as an energy source. The compound also lowers the melting point of water, which could improve the chance of liquid water existing on the Red Planet.
But the latest study, published in the journal Scientific Reports [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04910-3] [DX], suggests that in the presence of ultraviolet light perchlorate is not so microbe-friendly. Mars has a thin atmosphere, which often leaves its surface bathed in UV rays. And when heated, chlorine-based molecules like perchlorates cause heavy damage to living cells, reports Sarah Fecht at Popular Science.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday July 07 2017, @08:41AM (2 children)
FTFY
Oxygen is an extreme poison for anaerobic bacteria. A researcher from an anaerobic world might therefore conclude that the high concentration of oxygen on Earth suggests that life on Earth is highly improbable.
Tests with randomly selected bacteria from earth will reveal that extreme heat kills off bacteria. But not all of them: [wikipedia.org]
So the bacteria don't just survive those hot temperatures, they requre them.
If life evolved on Mars, it has evolved under Mars conditions. Therefore life forms on Mars will have evolved to live with perchlorates under UV. They possibly even need it to survive, just like we require the highly aggressive gas known as oxygen.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 07 2017, @06:56PM (1 child)
We should look for life on Venus, because the conditions there are a lot more dynamic and energetic than Mars.
It sure ain't gonna be life as we know it...
(Score: 2) by leftover on Friday July 07 2017, @07:07PM
Hmmm ... That sounds like an idea for a science-fiction B slasher movie. "Just one baby Venusian Dragonfly kicked all our asses, then it went home to tell Mom"
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.