Martian microbes could survive up to 280 million years buried underground
Ancient microbes on Mars could survive up to 280 million years if they are resistant to radiation and left buried underneath the ground in frozen, moist conditions, according to a study published on Tuesday.
Mars is a difficult planet to survive. Lacking a magnetic field and an atmosphere, it cannot shield its surface from harsh cosmic radiation or prevent liquid water evaporating from its surface. If Mars did harbor life in the past, it would be nothing short of a miracle for astronauts to discover live samples. The best chance of finding these hypothetical microbes would be to look below the planet's surface.
Buried beneath the Martian regolith, these alien microorganisms are protected from radiation and could lie dormant and survive for hundreds of millions of years if they are anything like, one of the hardiest species of bacteria found on Earth. Nicknamed"Conan the Bacterium," the microbe is particularly resistant to radiation and can survive with little oxygen under cold, dry temperatures.
A sample of Deinococcus radiodurans, a species known as Conan the Bacterium. Image Credit: Michael Daly/USU A team of scientists performed radiation experiments on six different types of frozen bacteria and fungi, zapping the samples with gamma rays to mimic conditions on Mars. They discovered Conan the Bacterium could withstand 140,000 grays of radiation, an amount 28,000 times more than the lethal dose for a human. If the bacterium lurks just ten centimeters below the surface, it could survive up to 1.