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Mars polar cap: a habitat for elementary life1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

M.K. Wallis ,
J.T. Wickramasinghe  and
N.C. Wickramasinghe
M.K. Wallis*
Affiliation:
Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
J.T. Wickramasinghe
Affiliation:
Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
N.C. Wickramasinghe
Affiliation:
Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Ices in the Martian polar caps are potential habitats for various species of microorganisms. Salts in the ice and biological anti-freeze polymers maintain liquid in cracks in the ices far below 0°C, possibly down to the mean 220–240 K. Sub-surface microbial life is shielded from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but could potentially be activated on south-facing slopes under the midday, midsummer Sun. Such life would be limited by low levels of vapour, little transport of nutrients, low light levels below a protective dirt-crust, frost accumulation at night and in shadows, and little if any active translocation of organisms. As in the Antarctic and in permafrost, movement to new habitats depends on geo-climatic changes, which for Mars's north polar cap occur on a 50 000 year scale, except for rare meteorite impacts.

Keywords

Marspolar habitatice psychrophilessub-crustal icemicrobial life
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 117 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

1

Poster paper at the Astrobiology Society of Britain Conference, Cardiff, July 2008.

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