 |
Mineral samples with bacterial communities in blue ice |
An international team of scientists has discovered “a complex and rare bacterial community” in ice while drilling a glacier in Norway. According to them, this discovery could provide evidence of life on Mars.
This bacterial community exists within blue ice cores and may be up to 1 million years old. It represents an extremely harsh environment, unfavorable for life.
Researcher Hans Amundsen from the University of Oslo, Norway, discovered this bacterial community while studying the Sverrefjell volcano in the Svalbard archipelago, located in northern Norway, as part of a scientific research program.
As part of this program, scientists drilled ice cores at the Spitzbergen volcano in the Svalbard archipelago. They noted that this is the only area on Earth where iron ore crystals similar to those found in meteorites that fell from Mars and were discovered in Antarctica in 1996 can be found.
Andrew Steele at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., the expedition leader, stated: “These frozen volcanic ice cores could also be found on Mars, and there may also be life there.”
In 2004, probes from the United States space agency (NASA) and the European Space Agency confirmed the presence of frozen water at the polar regions of Mars. Water is a crucial requirement for the emergence of living organisms, and this new discovery may further strengthen evidence that life could exist on the Red Planet.
T.VY (According to Newscientist, Physorg, Space Daily)
