Humans have always fantasized about "little green men" on Mars, and now scientists have created a new way to search for traces of alien life on the Red Planet. The unmanned probes sent by NASA and the European Space Agency have already found evidence that water may have once existed on the planet.
"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," says 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."
Marshall is working with Craig Marshall, associate professor of geology at KU, to improve the way scientists detect condensed aromatic carbon, thought 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 synthesised by life, and we hope our research helps strengthen the ability to evaluate the evidence collected on Mars," Craig says.
IF traces of ancient biology are detected on Mars, the researchers want to make sure the evidence is more conclusive. Raman spectroscopy is able to screen for carbonaceous material, but it can't determine its source, meaning the technology needs to be supplemented in order to determine if life exists on Mars.
"Raman spectroscopy works by impinging a laser on a sample so the molecules within that sample vibrate at diagnostic frequencies," Craig says.
"Measuring those frequencies allows the identification of inorganic and organic materials. It's insufficient because however the carbonaceous material is made, it will be the same chemically and structurally, and thus Raman spectroscopy cannot determine the origin."
Researchers have thus called for the use of gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy to supplement Raman spectroscopy and develop more conclusive evidence of ancient extraterrestrial life. Researchers hope, that by utilizing these methods, they can more clearly determine if life exists, or at least did exist on the Red Planet.
The search for life and life-giving minerals has been ongoing for years, as rovers from NASA comb the planet for evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet. While this new method may help prove one way or another that life could have once existed, it is doubtful that it will find any proof of any "little green men."
