Mars polar cap: a habitat for elementary life1

Details Mars polar cap: a habitat for elementary life1 Mars polar cap: a habitat for elementary life1

Apr 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009ijasb...8..117w&link_type=abstract

International Journal of Astrobiology, Volume 8, Issue 2, p. 117-119

Biology

Mars, Polar Habitat, Ice Psychrophiles, Sub-Crustal Ice, Microbial Life

Scientific paper

Ices in the Martian polar caps are potential habitats for various species of microorganisms. Salts in the ice and biological anti-freeze polymers maintain liquid in cracks in the ices far below 0°C, possibly down to the mean 220-240 K. Sub-surface microbial life is shielded from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but could potentially be activated on south-facing slopes under the midday, midsummer Sun. Such life would be limited by low levels of vapour, little transport of nutrients, low light levels below a protective dirt-crust, frost accumulation at night and in shadows, and little if any active translocation of organisms. As in the Antarctic and in permafrost, movement to new habitats depends on geo-climatic changes, which for Mars's north polar cap occur on a 50 000 year scale, except for rare meteorite impacts.

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