Mars life lies 2 meters deep underground?

"Our results show that amino acids are destroyed by cosmic rays in the Martian surface rock and regenerate at a much faster rate than previously thought," Alexander said. Pavlov from Goddard.

He said current Mars exploration missions are drilling down to the surface to a depth of just 5cm. At that depth, it only takes 20 million years to completely destroy amino acids, not to mention some Mars-specific materials that would accelerate destruction even further. That may be the reason why the ancient life that NASA has been searching for has not yet appeared.

Efforts to drill holes on Mars by NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance may be "a great success" - (Image: NASA)

According to Dr. Pavlov, in order to find dream things - like fossils of Martian organisms, scientists need to drill at least 2 meters deep to reach any intact, undisturbed life material. radiation erases traces.

The finding comes from an experiment to test the resistance of these compounds to radiation, by mixing amino acids with a mixture of minerals designed to mimic the condition of Mars, introduced into an environment. similar temperature to Mars.

In the best-case scenario, any amino acids present on the Martian surface 100 million years ago or so would have been "irradiated to nothing".

With the kind of life that NASA is looking for - billions of years old, when Mars still had water and was suitable for life - the efforts of the two self-propelled rover robots Curiosity and Perseverance recently were just "success". , once they are only a few centimeters deep.

As such, this space agency will need to find another way for its hunt for life, in its next missions.

The harsh radiation that surrounds the Martian surface - due to the lack of a magnetic field and fragile atmosphere - has been a problem for scientists for a long time, because it is the enemy of life. The Earth is habitable in large part because of its dense magnetosphere and atmosphere, which protects all species from the fierce radiation from the Sun, while still keeping warm.