Meltwater beneath Martian Ice Could Support Microbial Life
Mars has two kinds of ice: frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide. The new study, published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, looked at water ice, large amounts of which formed from snow mixed with dust that fell on the surface during a series of Martian ice ages in the past million years.
Through computer modeling, researchers found that the amount of sunlight that can shine through water ice would be enough for photosynthesis to occur in shallow pools of meltwater below the surface of that ice. Similar pools of water that form within ice on Earth have been found to teem with life, including algae, fungi, and microscopic cyanobacteria, all of which derive energy from photosynthesis.
"If we're trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exposures are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking," said the study's lead author, Aditya Khuller of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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