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Nasas Viking 2 on the surface of Mars. | Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
As early as 1976, the doubles Nasa Viking Landers came to a stop on the red planet.
Her experimental findings in her life detection still re -enacted in the scientific community, which takes on the ongoing discussion about a key question: Is there life on Mars?
Fast lead to this day and a new paper tackled and checks the results of the experiments of the Viking biology.
Perchlorate finding
The most important change since the experiments of the 1970s was the discovery of a high perchlorate level on Mars. Perchlorate Plus Abiotic Oxidation explains the Viking results and there is no need to postulate life on Mars.
“The discovery of perchlorate on Mars by the Phoenix mission has provided a basis for explaining the results of the Viking countries,” says the newly exhibited paper note. “Heat pipe translation of perchlorate in the ovens of the [Viking] Instrument can explain the lack of organic instruments. The accumulation of hypochlorite in the soil from the cosmic radiation translation of perchlorate can explain reactivity if nutrient solutions have been added to the soil in the experiments of the Viking biology. “
However, the paper adds: “A non-biological explanation for the Viking results does not rule out life on Mars.”
Check the results again
The paper “The Viking Biology Experiments on Mars Revisited” just published by the well-known Mars researchers Christopher McKay, Richard Quinn and Carol Stoker. All three authors come from the Space Science Division of the AMES Research Center of NASA in Moffett Field, California, near San Francisco.
“With the Mars sample on the horizon and the prospect of future missions for Mars, perhaps even in the involvement of life recognition instruments, it can be in good time to visit the results of the experiments of Viking biology again,” suggests the research team. “Since Viking ended up on Mars, many things have changed and many things have not changed. What has not changed in the past 50 years has been our understanding of life boundaries in cold and dry environments.”
In a communiqué with Christopher McKay, he said Space.com: “It is important to note that we do not say that the Viking results do not imply life on Mars. We also do not say that the Viking results are implying that there is life on Mars.”
McKay said that her key point is that the Viking results say that there are perchlorate and other oxidizing agents on Mars, “and the experiments of the Viking biology reacted to this.”
This means that the results of the Viking biology experiments cannot be used to justify an approach to the health and security of astronauts or a sample and/or a quarantine directive of the astronauts for return to earth that does not accept life on Mars.
Model of the Viking Mars Lander of NASA. | Credit: NASA/JPL
New data
Related stories:
– Did NASA accidentally kill life on Mars? Why a scientist thinks that
– The life of the Martian could have withdrawn the discovery by Viking countries
– Life on Mars? 40 years later, Viking Lander Scientist still says “yes”
In her work for the Scientific Journal, Icarus, the research trio explains that major changes have resulted from missions to Mars. “The most important new data was the surprising discovery of the Phoenix mission that the floors of Mars contain about 0.5% perchlorate,” they observed. “This incredibly high concentration of perchlorate is still not adequately explained, but the effects on the Viking results are profound.”
The space scientists in their work explain that the perchlorate model and the resulting conclusion that Viking has not shown any life in the surface floors of Mars are included in every discussion of the rehearsal return or the astronaut return from Mars.
“The space contract prohibits the adverse changes in the environment of the earth, which results from the introduction of the extraterrestrial matter.” Future experiments are necessary to better understand the chemistry of Mars floors and the possibility of life to exist there, “add McKay and colleagues.
Good goals
When summarizing your research work, you conclude that the perchlorate model for the Viking results “does not prove that there is no life at Mars, nor implies that the continued search for life proofs for life on Mars, past or present is pointless.”
In fact, as the research team suggests, “we are emphasizing for the search for evidence of an existing life in future missions. Good goals are salt deposits and polar base ice.”
This new research was published in Icarus.
