Mars rovers tasked with hunting for traces of biology could roll over microscopic life forms without smelling a thing, simply because their instruments aren't up to the task.
rovers tasked with hunting for traces of biology could roll over microscopic life forms without smelling a thing, simply because their instruments aren't up to the task.
A new study carried out in Earth's oldest desert shows how current technology can't always spot the signatures of life on our own planet's surface. Let alone on Mars's. The researchers behind the investigation argue without improving our ability to identify long-dead 'microbial', life on Mars will continue to elude us. Especially if the life we are searching for existed billions of years ago when the planet was warmer and wetter than it is today.
Chile's Atacama Desert features an ancient delta called the Red Stone, which contains sand and rock rich in hematite and mudstone. Geologically, this region is quite similar to parts of Mars, which is why astrobiologists often use it as a model for the red planet. When researchers in Chile tested the Red Stone's mineralogy with the best instruments available today, they uncovered some mysterious signs.fell into the 'unclassified' category, whereas 40 percent of the remaining sequences could not be assigned to anything more specific than the highest of taxa, such as orders or domains.their findings unveil"an unusual high degree of phylogenetic indeterminacy.
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