Inhabited subsurface wet smectites in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert as an analog for the search for life on Mars
| Autor: | Armando Azua-Bustos, Maite Fernández-Sampedro, Daniel Carrizo, Cristián Arenas-Fajardo, Elizabeth B. Rampe, Laura Sánchez-García, Carolina Gil-Lozano, Alberto G. Fairén, Miguel Ángel Fernández-Martínez, Jacek Wierzchos, Carlos González Silva, Carmen Ascaso |
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| Přispěvatelé: | European Research Council, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Sánchez García, L. [0000-0002-7444-1242], Lozano, C. G. [0000-0003-3500-2850], Fernández Sampedro, M. [0000-0003-1932-7591], European Research Council (ERC), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), Human Frontier Science Program, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Extraterrestrial Environment lcsh:Medicine Life on Mars 01 natural sciences Article Astrobiology Martian surface 0103 physical sciences lcsh:Science 010303 astronomy & astrophysics Soil Microbiology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Multidisciplinary biology Environmental microbiology Bacteria Silicates lcsh:R Water Mars Exploration Program 15. Life on land biology.organism_classification Arid Habitat Microbial population biology 13. Climate action Subaerial lcsh:Q Desert Climate Geology Archaea |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports DIGITAL.INTA Repositorio Digital del Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial instname Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | The modern Martian surface is unlikely to be habitable due to its extreme aridity among other environmental factors. This is the reason why the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert has been studied as an analog for the habitability of Mars for more than 50 years. Here we report a layer enriched in smectites located just 30 cm below the surface of the hyperarid core of the Atacama. We discovered the clay-rich layer to be wet (a phenomenon never observed before in this region), keeping a high and constant relative humidity of 78% (a 0.780), and completely isolated from the changing and extremely dry subaerial conditions characteristic of the Atacama. The smectite-rich layer is inhabited by at least 30 halophilic species of metabolically active bacteria and archaea, unveiling a previously unreported habitat for microbial life under the surface of the driest place on Earth. The discovery of a diverse microbial community in smectite-rich subsurface layers in the hyperarid core of the Atacama, and the collection of biosignatures we have identified within the clays, suggest that similar shallow clay deposits on Mars may contain biosignatures easily reachable by current rovers and landers. The reported research is a contribution from the Project “MarsFirstWater”, funded by the European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant No. 818602 to AGF and by the Human Frontiers Science Program grant nº RGY0066/2018 to AAB. This work was also supported by the grant PGC2018-094076-B-I00 to JW and CA from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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