New research from NASA suggests that the building blocks of life could remain preserved in Martian ice for tens of millions of years, offering a potential roadmap for future missions searching for evidence of past life on the Red Planet. The study, led by Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, challenges previous assumptions about the degradation rate of organic materials in Martian ice mixtures.
In laboratory simulations of Martian conditions, scientists found that over 10% of amino acids – key components of proteins – survived for 50 million years in pure water ice after exposure to radiation. Though, samples mixed with Martian-like sediment degraded ten times faster, due to reactive films forming at the interface between the ice and minerals, allowing radiation to more easily damage the amino acids.
“Pure ice is able to trap harmful radiation particles, preventing damage to organic matter,” explained Pavlov. “Which means that clean, buried ice deposits are an ideal target for future exploration, rather than surface rocks or soil.” He added, “The results were surprising – keeping organic matter in pure water ice degrades it far slower than in samples containing water and soil.”
Recent discoveries from the Mars Curiosity rover further support the planet’s potential habitability. The rover recently analyzed spiderweb-like, boxy structures resembling ancient underground water systems, suggesting conditions that could have supported life. Curiosity has also detected organic compounds in rock samples, confirming the presence of water resources on Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is also employing autonomous navigation to explore ancient lakebed regions and collect samples for potential signs of microbial life, increasing the efficiency of the search. These findings suggest that future Mars missions should prioritize drilling into pure ice to search for biosignatures.
（首圖來源：AI生成）
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