Atacama Desert - Mars on Earth

Arid and deserted with bacteria, land in the Atacama Desert (Chile), one of the oldest, driest deserts in the world, very similar to the gravel-red soil on Mars. This finding could help us better understand the Mars experiment conducted by the Viking spacecraft in the 1970s. And we can continue to hope for the conquest of the red planet.

In 1976, the whole world fluttered when the Viking spacecraft operated by the robot first landed on Mars. The results of Viking's biological tests show that there are strange signs in the activity of the earth layer on the red planet - like the bacteria that release gas. This makes the scientific community hope to find life on Mars.

Before widely announcing the news of finding extraterrestrial life, the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) conducted more tests to find evidence of organic matter on the red planet. However, the Viking ship could not find carbon, the basic substance to make life. Therefore, they had to declare that Mars is a dead planet. But many people do not accept this result, and voiced requests for further research.

And now, research work has continued, but not on Mars but in the Atacama desert. In some ways, the controversy surrounding the Viking ship has eased. However, new questions were raised. Dr Richard Quinn of NASA's Ames Research Center said: " Normally, people assume that planet Earth's activity is chemical rather than biological. We have identified a location. on earth there is a chemical process similar to that on Mars: restraining life ".

The soil in the center of the Atacama desert is extremely dry. The driest place is the same as the area where the Viking ships surveyed on Mars. Less water and more sunshine, the environment forms a chemical cycle that decomposes organic matter and restrains life. When re-conducting the Viking ship's test of the Atacama desert soil, scientists received the same results as with Mars.

However, they found traces of organic matter, albeit at a much lower level than what Viking found on Mars. The research team concluded that organic matter is always present, only things are too low, so it is difficult to detect. Dr. Quinn said: " Currently, we have not determined whether Viking cannot detect organic compounds on Mars. Our work shows that this is entirely possible. However, we will conduct further testing on Mars to find an answer to this question . "

The soil in the Atacama Desert is extremely suitable for testing research equipment that will be used on Mars. Currently, two new devices are being developed, including equipment for studying chemical processes and devices for detecting organic compounds on Mars. Dr. Quinn added: " We hope to use these devices to search for life on the red planet ."