The saline hiding places of the bacteria of the river Tinto can be like those of Mars
2013-01-10
The high doses of radiation, the lack of humidity, as well as the extreme temperature and pressure that the surface of Mars supports make life difficult. Within this hostile environment, scientists look for more 'friendly' niches that could shelter it and one of the candidates are salt deposits.
Now a team from the Astrobiology Center (CAB, INTA- CSIC) has analyzed an environment of this type on Earth: the crusts of salt associated with a mineral with sulfur and iron called natrojarosite. It is found in the basin of the Tinto river, in Huelva, and is very similar to another detected on Mars: the jarosite. Its presence reveals the present or past existence of water.
"Saline deposits are good 'shelters' of biological remains, and even of life itself, in very adverse situations," he highlights. SINC Felipe Gómez, co-author of this work that publishes the Planetary and Space Science magazine.
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Fecha: 2013-01-10
The answer to questions about life and its origin come from the combined efforts of many disciplines
The science developed in the CAB is channeled through interdepartmental research lines