NASA to dig deeper on Mars after research makes new revelations about life ingredients

NASA now knows where to look for life on Mars after a new study suggested digging deeper. Led by Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the study revealed that space radiations break down small molecules such as amino acids much faster than previously thought. As a result, its Curiosity and Perseverance rover will have to dig 6.6 feet or more to find those degraded molecules, if any.

"Current Mars rover missions drill down to about two inches (around five centimeters). At those depths, it would take only 20 million years to destroy amino acids completely", Pavlov said in a statement. "The addition of perchlorates and water increases the rate of amino acid destruction even further".  

Why are amino acids important?

Amino acids are the fundamental ingredients of life and finding them on Mars would be considered a potential sign of ancient life because they are widely used by terrestrial life as a component to build proteins. These proteins, in turn, make enzymes that speed up or regulate chemical reactions and make structures and hence organisms. Scientists have confirmed that these organic molecules are easily destroyed when the high-energy particles emitted from the Sun penetrate into a rock.

According to existing theories, Mars once had a thick atmosphere and a magnetosphere which blocked the harmful cosmic rays and allowed water to exist in a liquid state. Since these theories are proven, scientists are looking for clues if the water bodies on Mars once housed microbial life.

Search for amino acids on Mars

Although the presence of amino acids has not been confirmed on Mars, scientists did discover them on a meteorite from Mars which fell in Antarctica. The recent study, which was published in the journal Astrobiology, it suggests drilling samples from recently exposed outcrops with ages less than 10 million years. "Our work is the first comprehensive study where the destruction of a broad range of amino acids was studied under a variety of Mars-relevant factors (temperature, water content, perchlorate abundance) and the rates of radiolysis were compared", said Pavlov. 

Scientists are supporting the idea of drilling beyond six feet owing to the discovery of Martian meteorite RBT 04262, which had preserved several straight-chain amino acids. "Since meteorites from Mars typically get ejected from depths of at least 3.3 feet (one meter) or more, it is possible that the amino acids in RBT 04262 were protected from cosmic radiation", Danny Glavin, a co-author of the paper said.