The search for life on Mars has fascinated humanity for a long time. Scientists study the red planet using telescopes on Earth, spacecrafts that fly around it, and robots that have landed on its surface. Evidence indicates that Mars has underground liquid water, a critical resource for all living beings on Earth. There is also evidence of some interesting molecules formed by the perchlorate anion ( ClO4- ) in the Martian soil. On Earth, these molecules can be used by certain types of microbes to grow. This means that microbes capable of using perchlorate salts as part of their life cycle could survive on Mars. In this article we discuss how Earth microbes use the perchlorate anion based on some lab experiments performed by our research group. Our work could eventually help to detect microbial activity on Mars.
Cadena et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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