Limitations on Detection of Low Levels on Organics in Mars-Like Soils using Pyrolysis GCMS: Implications for the Viking Lander Results

Details Limitations on Detection of Low Levels on Organics in Mars-Like Soils using Pyrolysis GCMS: Implications for the Viking Lander Results Limitations on Detection of Low Levels on Organics in Mars-Like Soils using Pyrolysis GCMS: Implications for the Viking Lander Results

Dec 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.p41d..03n&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #P41D-03

Mathematics

Logic

0424 Biosignatures And Proxies, 0456 Life In Extreme Environments, 1060 Planetary Geochemistry (5405, 5410, 5704, 5709, 6005, 6008), 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

The non-detection of organics by the Viking pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (pyr-GC-MS) experiment suggested chemical rather than biological interpretations for the reactivity of the Martian soil. Here we report that pyr-GC-MS may be blind to low levels of organics on Mars. A comparison between pyr-GC-MS and total organics has been conducted for a variety of Mars analog soils. In the Antarctic dry valleys and the Atacama Desert we find 10-90 μg of refractory or graphitic carbon per gram of soil which would have been undetectable by the Viking pyr-GC-MS. In iron-contain soils (jarosites from Rio Tinto and Panoche Valley) and the Mars simulant (palogonite), oxidation of the organic material to carbon dioxide (CO2) by iron oxides and/or their salts drastically attenuates the detection of organics. The release of 50-700 ppm of CO2 and of 0.01-1.0% of water vapour (H2O) by pyr-GC-MS in the Viking analysis may indicate that an oxidation of organic material took placed. Therefore, the Martian surface could have several orders of magnitude more organics than previously thought. Because of the simplicity of sample handling, pyr-GC-MS is still considered the standard method for organic detection on future Mars missions. Nevertheless, the design of future organic instruments for Mars should include other methods in order to be able to detect extinct and/or extant life.

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