Humans have always fantasized of "little green men" from Mars, and scientists have come up with a new way to search for traces of aliens on the Red Planet.
Missions to Mars have pretty much crushed the dream of aliens running around the planet, but have turned up evidence that it may have once had conditions hospitable for life, the University of Kansas reported.
"There has been a tremendous amount of very exciting findings this year that Mars once contained actively flowing, low-saline, near-neutral-pH water - pretty much the type of water where you find life on Earth today," said Alison Olcott Marshall, assistant professor of geology at the University of Kansas. "This has made people think that it's possible that life could have existed on Mars, although most researchers agree it's unlikely to exist today - at least on the surface - as conditions on the surface of Mars are incredibly harsh."
The researchers looked for ways to improve how we detect condensed aromatic carbon, which are believed to be a chemical signature of astrobiology.
"If we're going to identify life on Mars, it will likely be the fossil remnants of the chemicals once synthesized by life, and we hope our research helps strengthen the ability to evaluate the evidence collected on Mars," Craig Marshall said.
The researchers are using Raman spectroscopy to search for carbonaceous materials, but the technology cannot determine its source meaning it cannot prove any findings indicate the existence of ancient life. Raman lasing technology works by subjecting a sample to a laser that causes the molecules to vibrate at diagnostic frequencies that can be measured to identify organic and inorganic materials. The method is inefficient because carbonaceous material is all the same chemically and structurally, so the laser cannot determine its origin. The researchers believe incorporating gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy could help remedy these inefficiencies.
"If you were to pick up a typical rock on Mars it would look quite different, chemically, from a typical rock here on Earth, not to mention the fact that it would be covered in rusty dust," Alison Olcott Marshall said. "Previous research into how Raman spectroscopy would fare on Mars was mainly done on pure salts and minerals, often ones synthesized in a lab. We identified field sites on the Kansas-Oklahoma border with a chemical content more like what could be found on Mars, right down to the rusty dust, and we've been exploring how Raman spectroscopy fares in such an environment."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society.
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