An
illustration of the Spirit rover – one of two robots on Mars whose
findings led astronomers to conclude that life on Mars may have had an
early demise due to water there being too salty
Boston: Life on Mars may have been snuffed out
early on because the water there was too salty, a US biologist involved
in exploring the red planet said here Saturday.
“Mars has been a
very dry place for a very long time,” said Andrew Knoll, an expert
member of a team operating two US robots that are currently exploring
Mars. “The best place to look for life is in the earliest history,” he
added.
“It was really salty and difficult for micro-organisms to
survive in this water,” he said, citing discoveries by the robots which
back up earlier theories that strong concentrations of minerals killed
off life.
However, the discoveries by the robots roving the
planet – dubbed Spirit and Opportunity – cannot confirm whether life
ever existed on Mars.
“If there is a habitable niche, it’s
underground” on the planet, said the head scientist for the mission,
astronomer Steven Squyres of US’ Cornell University. Life anywhere else
would leave atmospheric traces of gas produced by organisms.
According to another theory cited by Knoll, “a large meteorite may have
sterilised life on Mars.”
In December, the US space agency NASA said the Spirit robot had discovered
nearly pure silicon on Mars.
Squyres
said this silicon forms near natural hot water sources or volcanic
outlets, which give off natural gas. On Earth, living microbes are
always found in such situations.
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