the-actual-universe: “Is there life on Mars?”To start off, thanks to David Bowie for the
the-actual-universe:“Is there life on Mars?”To start off, thanks to David Bowie for the lyrics in the title of this post. A few weeks ago I posted a discussion of an interesting issue – the idea of planetary protection, in the sense of protecting other planets from us (http://tinyurl.com/pwlscmo). Specifically, I noted that there are possibly environments on Mars that may have already been contaminated by living bacteria from Earth.Based on a new report this week, I think this image shows a close relative of an organism that is alive on Mars today.This is an electron microscope image of a bacterium that was just discovered in a very unusual place; inside the clean rooms at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Kennedy Space Center.When spacecraft are being constructed, they are built inside rooms that are as clean as we know how to make them. People go through decontamination when entering; any parts brought in are cleaned and disinfected, areas are exposed to UV light constantly; we clean these rooms as well as we know how to do without destroying everything inside.Unfortunately, bacteria outgun us. There are thousands of bacterial species everywhere you look; in soil samples, in and on human bodies, everywhere. Any time a human enters one of these rooms or a part comes in, it brings in possible contaminants if they aren’t killed by those disinfecting techniques. According to the JPL press release, less than 1% of bacterial types have been cultured; grown in conditions where they could be studied and prepared for DNA extraction.This little bugger is a unique specimen. It was found in samples from the centers where spacecraft are constructed and tested living quite happily. Those settings are difficult; lots of disinfectants, very limited nutrient levels, and yet somehow this thing still survives.This bacterium is unique in other ways; it not only is a new species, it’s so distant from any known bacterium that it is an entirely new genus as well. It’s called Tersicoccus phoenicis; Tersi is the latin word for “clean”. This bacterium probably fills a very specialized role in nature. It probably evolved in such a way that it can tolerate extremely harsh conditions of chemicals and lack of nutrients; maybe in a way that allows it to survive alongside more aggressive organisms without having to compete for resources. Whatever it was, this bacterium, and perhaps others like it, is well adapted and able to survive in the extreme conditions found in NASA’s clean rooms.That robustness should raise red flags…because anything that was built in one of these clean rooms would likely contain some of these cells on it. That would include, of course, landers and rovers sent to Mars. These guys can survive on very limited nutrients, they don’t need oxygen from the air, they can survive heavy UV bombardment and extreme chemicals, and they’re growing in places where we build spacecraft to send to other planets.It’s worth stressing again that the scientists at NASA and JPL do the best they can. Part of the reason why this bug is able to live there is that there is nothing else to compete with – almost everything else is dead. Similarly, the reason why this bug was identified is that they do such an incredible, detailed job of looking to see what else is in there. But still, this bug exists in those clean rooms.So yeah, I think it’s a very safe assumption that you’re looking at a microscopic image of life on Mars. Not life that evolved on Mars; a very extreme bacterium that lives on Earth in the one place where it could get a free ride to Mars. And I bet it was more than happy to survive that trip.-JBBImage credit: JPLSource -- source link