The atmosphere and geography of Mars have always piqued scientists’ interest, but a recent NASA laboratory experiment suggests that in order to look for any signs of extraterrestrial life, researchers may need to adopt a new approach. The experiment indicates that the Rovers will need to drill at least 6.6 feet or more beneath Mars’ surface in order to uncover any signs of life. The Rovers can detect amino acid residues at that depth, which is a clear sign that there once was life on the red planet. The study hypothesises that over time, cosmic rays on Mars have harmed any evidence of life.
The study, which was published in the journal Astrobiology, stated that the proof of life on Mars is possibly getting damaged faster than previously estimated by the scientists.
‘Our results suggest that amino acids are destroyed by cosmic rays in the Martian surface rocks and regolith at much faster rates than previously thought,’ Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said according to a report on Interesting Engineering.
‘Current Mars rover missions drill down to about two inches (around five centimetres). At those depths, it would take only 20 million years to destroy amino acids completely. The addition of perchlorates and water increases the rate of amino acid destruction even further,’
‘Missions with shallow drill sampling have to seek recently exposed outcrops – e.g., recent microcraters with ages less than 10 million years or the material ejected from such craters,’ he added.
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