Life is a fickle thing , and to understand the potential for sprightliness beyond Earth we continue to prove how microorganism deal with extreme atmospheric condition . The former experimentation looked at how fungi and lichens would fare on the Red Planet .
European scientists collected fungus kingdom from Antarctica , and lichen from the Sierra de Gredos ( Spain ) and the Alps ( Austria ) , and they sent them to the International Space Station ( ISS ) to go through conditions alike to Mars . After 18 calendar month , the squad psychoanalyze the sample and find out that more than 60 per centum of the cells were entire and with unchanging DNA . The results argue that the rough atmospheric condition of Mars might not be an insurmountable obstacle , and these extremophile specie might go .
The Antarctic fungi were gather in the McMurdo Dry Valleys , an field that is considered to be the most Martian - like environment on Earth , due to its dryness and sub - zero temperature . Along with the European lichen specie , the fungus were rank inEXPOSE - E , an experiment platform develop by ESA that was attached to the outside of the ISS .
The microorganisms were in a Mars - comparable atmosphere , made almost entirely of carbon dioxide , and at a dispirited pressure ( 0.01 air ) . Using optical filters , the sample were subject to the same ultraviolet radiation they would experience on Mars .
" The most relevant outcome was that more than 60 percent of the cells of the endolithic biotic community studied remained entire after ' picture to Mars ' , or rather , the stableness of their cellular DNA was still high , " say a co - researcher on the labor , Rosa de la Torre Noetzel from Spain ’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology , in astatement
" The results help to tax the natural selection power and foresightful - condition stableness of microorganisms and bioindicators on the surface of Mars , information which becomes fundamental and relevant for future experiment focus around the lookup for life on the Red Planet , " she append .
The finding , print in the journalAstrobiology , might seem in contrast to the lack of bacterium in theAntarctic permafrostreported by IFLScience last week , but both survey tell us something profound about life in the existence . Yes , there are evolved biography forms that could survive in extreme extraterrestrial environments , but there ’s a pregnant difference between surviving and thriving .
