14 DAY TRIAL // One of the coldest places on Earth can help scientists understand how life is supported on other planets of our Solar System.
The two researchers, Professor Liane Benning (University of Leeds) and Dr. Dominique Tobler (University of Glasgow) went to Ny-Alesund on the Svalbard island, to analyze the way that the snow and ice there were first occupied by organisms called the extremophiles that prosper in rough conditions..
Until now, all studies of the cold-loving microorganisms have been analyzing those living in sediment-rich subglacial ice or in melt holes on the surface, but none focused on signs of life from the surface ice and snow.
Professor Benning said that “glacial snow and ice is a good analogue for ice and frost-covered ground at the Martian poles or other icy bodies in the Solar System, like Europa.
“Organisms that live here have evolved to thrive with very little food, large temperature fluctuations, dehydration and high levels of UV radiation. For example, snow algae make carotinoids pigments that protect them from UV radiation and cause the snow to turn bright red.
“If we can learn more about how life can form and thrive in these areas, and the survival strategies they adopt, it gives us a better chance of detecting life on other planets with similarly extreme conditions,” she adds.
The two will gather samples near the Ny-Alesund research station as well as from other glacial sites, accessible by helicopter, and once these samples filtered and preserved, they will be sent to laboratories in the UK for further analysis.
Using the latest-state-of-the-art “life-detection techniques” scientists will determine live/dead cell counts, tabulate the biodiversity, study the geochemistry of inorganic samples and investigate the microorganisms' DNA.
Professor Benning said that this mission is like “CSI in the snow”, as they need to make sure they “are not detecting any contaminants [they] might have brought into the field.”
Life that might exist on other planets is likely to be in small amounts, so scientists are training with the most sensitive technology that can detect very small signals, SpaceRef.com reports.
“If we don't get our experiments right on the ground, they have little chance of working elsewhere in the solar system, Professor Benning added.
The British team will spend two weeks on Svalbard, from 6 to 20 August, as scheduled by the Europlanet Research Infrastructure's Transnational Access Program.
This expedition is part of an international AMASE project, that studies extreme environments on Earth as testing for the technology that will be used in NASA's and ESA's future missions on Mars.