1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:09,920 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. When it comes to searching for 3 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: microbes on Mars, sending a robotic rover to the most 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,280 Speaker 1: arid environment on Earth is a fine place to start. 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:18,600 Speaker 1: As described in a study recently published in the journal 6 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: Frontiers and Microbiology, a team of researchers explored the extreme 7 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: environment of Chile's Atacama Desert. They wanted to develop strategies 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: that future robotic explorers could use to seek out the 9 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:34,479 Speaker 1: hiding places of Martian microbes. Both NASA and the European 10 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: Space Agency will launch their first life hunting rovers to 11 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: the Red planet, the Mars Exo Mars Rover missions, respectively, 12 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,480 Speaker 1: so mission managers will need to know where to look. 13 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: The Atacama Desert is about as extreme as it gets 14 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: for life to eke out an existence, and not only 15 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: is the region bone dry, the core of the desert 16 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: doesn't get any rainfall for decades at a time, but 17 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: because of its elevation, it also receives high levels of 18 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: damaging ultraviolet radiation. Plus the soil is extremely salty. These 19 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: factors should make the Atacama Desert toxic for life, but 20 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: according to team leader stuff In Pointing, a professor at 21 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: Yale and US College in Singapore, some of the bacteria 22 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,479 Speaker 1: just below the surface quote survive right at the limit 23 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: of habitability, and this is very good news for the 24 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,679 Speaker 1: prospect of finding microbes on Mars. Pointings team deployed an 25 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,959 Speaker 1: autonomous rover mounted drill and sampling device in the Atacama 26 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: Desert to see if it could extract soil samples containing 27 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: microbes down to a depth of eight centimeters that's a 28 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: little over two and a half feet. As a comparison, 29 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: samples were also dug up by hand through DNA sequencing. 30 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: The researchers found that the bacterial life and the samples 31 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: from both methods were similar, confirming that these hardy bacteria 32 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: exist and the autonomous extraction method was successful. This test 33 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: run shores up hope that if similarly hardy microbes also 34 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:57,600 Speaker 1: thrived just below the Martian surface, a robot could find them. However, 35 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: finding microbial biosignatures on Mars could be very challenging for 36 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: a remotely operated Mars rover. The researchers found that the 37 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: subsurface population of bacteria were extremely patchy, correlating with increased 38 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: salt levels that restricted the availability of water. Pointing put 39 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: it this way, The patchy nature of the colonization suggest 40 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:17,359 Speaker 1: the rover would be faced with a needle in a 41 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: haystack scenario. In the search for Martian bacteria, previous studies 42 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:26,839 Speaker 1: have described the ubiquitous population of relatively unremarkable photosynthetic bacteria 43 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: that populate the surface of the desert in Chile. These 44 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: are microorganisms that get their energy from sunlight. Things start 45 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: to get a lot more interesting and indeed more alien, 46 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,120 Speaker 1: just below the surface, Pointing said, we saw that with 47 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: increasing depth, the bacterial community became dominated by bacteria that 48 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: can thrive in extremely salty and alkaline soils. They in 49 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: turn were replaced at depths down to eighty centimeters by 50 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:54,360 Speaker 1: a single specific group of bacteria that survived by metabolizing methane. 51 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: These specialized microbes have been found before in deep mind 52 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: shafts and other subterranean environment, but they've never been seen 53 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: beneath the surface of an arid desert. Pointing said, the 54 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: communities of bacteria that we discovered were remarkably lacking in complexity, 55 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,200 Speaker 1: and this likely reflects the extreme stress under which they develop. 56 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: Finding highly specialized microbes that can thrive in the extremely dry, 57 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,799 Speaker 1: salty and alkaline Mars. Like soils in the Atacama Desert 58 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: suggest methane utilizing bacteria could also thrive on the Red planet. 59 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: Elevated levels of methane have been observed on Mars by 60 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: various spacecraft over the years, most recently measures made by 61 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: NASA's Curiosity Rover, and that's a big deal. On Earth, 62 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: biological and geological processes generate methane, and in turn, microbes 63 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: can metabolize methane for energy. The discovery of methane in 64 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: the Martian atmosphere could mean there's some kind of active 65 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: biology going on underground. To confirm this, we need microbe 66 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: seeking missions that will drill below the surface, and now 67 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: we have a strategy to track them down. Should microbial 68 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: life be found on Mars, it would undoubtedly be the 69 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: most significant scientific discovery in human history. But in the 70 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: proud human tradition of naming new things, what would we 71 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: call our newly discovered Martian neighbors? Would we just copy 72 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: the system of how we name life on Earth? Pointing said, 73 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: the way we assign Latin names to terrestrial bacteria is 74 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: based on their evolutionary relationship to each other, and we 75 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,360 Speaker 1: measure that using their genetic code. The naming of Martian 76 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: bacteria would require a completely new set of Latin names 77 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: at the highest level, if Martian bacteria were a completely 78 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: separate evolutionary lineage, that is, they evolved from a different 79 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:32,040 Speaker 1: common ancestor to Earth bacteria in a second genesis event. Granted, 80 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: if we find the genetic code of Mars life to 81 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: be similar to Earth life, it could be that life 82 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,039 Speaker 1: was transferred from Earth to Mars in the ancient past 83 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: via a massive impact, a mechanism known as pan spermia. 84 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,839 Speaker 1: But if we find a truly novel genetic code that 85 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,040 Speaker 1: emerged on Mars, the implications for our understanding of life 86 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: would be profound. Pointing said, if we find truly native 87 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: Martian bacteria, I would love to name one and call 88 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: it planet a desert a supersities, which translates in Latin 89 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:07,559 Speaker 1: to survive on the desert planet. Today's episode was written 90 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 1: by Ian O'Neill and produced by Tyler Clain for iHeartMedia 91 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,120 Speaker 1: and How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots 92 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: of other hardy topics, visit our home planet how stuff 93 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: Works dot Com.