Is There Life Out There? The Scoop on Mars Phoenix Rumors of Life

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August 4, 10:02 AM

by Patricia Phillips, Space News Examiner

 

 

The first denials came from the Mars Phoenix Lander robot itself, which maintains its own Twitter account. Phoenix team members ghostwrite for the plucky little lander, hard at work about 400 million miles away.And, industry insiders point out that briefing the Presidential Science Advisor on major missions is a pretty standard step  within the bureaucracy of government.--but that no White House briefing has been held or planned.

In fact, any reports that the Phoenix team had found evidence of life on Mars, or reported that finding to the White House, are "bogus and damaging," declared Peter Smith, University of Phoenix Phoenix principal investigator.He called the Aviation Week story and subsequent articles "half the story," and dismissed the rumor that part of the Phoenix team was deliberately kept from press briefings, as Aviation Week writer Craig Covault alleged.

So what did Phoenix find that has everyone so excited? Firstly, the team has fulfilled the dreams of those who saw canals on Mars and wondered about water on the supposedly dry, dead planet by "tasting" actual Martian water. But they've found more than that--they've found some of the essential chemical building blocks of life, as we define life back here on Earth.

So, as Reba McEntire warbles "is there life out there?" Although her song is about the life beyond her own back yard, it's on target as the Phoenix team digs up a bit of Mars' northern arctic back yard.

What they found is astonishing.

"It's not that Mars is so alien but that Mars is so earth-like in some ways," said Phoenix co-investigator Sam Kounaves, Tufts University. "We basically have found what appears to be the fundamental requirements for  nutrients to support life."

The Martian soil  is "very similar to native soils on Earth," he added.   The Mars dirt examined by Phoenix is alkaline, and  it contains  sodium, chloride, magnesium, and  potassium.

Kounaves pointed out that the Phoenix mission isn't "looking for evidence of life--we're looking at the ability of the soil to support life."

That's an important scientific distinction.

The Phoenix mission statement says "Recent discoveries have shown that life can exist in the most extreme conditions. Indeed, it is possible that bacterial spores can lie dormant in bitterly cold, dry, and airless conditions for millions of years and become activated once conditions become favorable. Such dormant microbial colonies may exist in the Martian arctic, where due to the periodic wobbling of the planet, liquid water may exist for brief periods about every 100,000 years making the soil environment habitable.

Phoenix will assess the habitability of the Martian northern environment by using sophisticated chemical experiments to assess the soil's composition of life giving elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and hydrogen. Identified by chemical analysis, Phoenix will also look at reduction-oxidation (redox) molecular pairs that may determine whether the potential chemical energy of the soil can sustain life, as well as other soil properties critical to determine habitability such as pH and saltiness."

As for water on Mars, the team notes: "Liquid water does not currently exist on the surface of Mars, but evidence from Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey and Exploration Rover missions suggest that water once flowed in canyons and persisted in shallow lakes billions of years ago. However, Phoenix will probe the history of liquid water that may have existed in the arctic as recently as 100,000 years ago."

In essence, the water and soil discoveries on Mars are not only exciting, but they serve as a time capsule, too, allowing scientists to peer back into Mars' history. Was there life on Mars at one time? Is there life there now? Could Mars become a habitable planet for Earthlings?

Buckle up, because the Mars exploration ride has only begun. Here's a video clip of Kounaves discussing Martian soil and what it all means.

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