BLUESPACE: The possibility of existence of life on Mars

BLUESPACE: The possibility of existence of life on Mars
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The presence of life outside Earth has been a topic of curiosity throughout history. Recently, researchers have been exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial life in Saturn’s satellite Enceladus and on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Venus was also considered to harbor life in the early 20th century. Of all heavenly bodies, however, Mars is deemed to be the best planet to accommodate growth. Mars's likeness to Earth, with the recent exploration of Mars Rover, has opened up researches to prove such. Yet, there has been no confirmation from the studies conducted.
The documentary Bluespace explores this idea of biological life on Mars. As stated in 22:34 – 22:40 of the documentary, “And if there is life on Mars, it's probably microbial, and it's either in rocks or underneath rocks.” Several scientific journals support life on the subsurface of Mars. Few of them are selected and are elaborated in the succeeding parts of this paper.
Existence if life on Mars’ subsurface backed up by a study of Weiss et al. (2000). The authors argued that energy efflux from the oxidation of atmospheric H2 and CO could supply subsurface Martian organisms. The biological activity is claimed to be only possible in the top few hundred meters of the subsurface. The energy flux can penetrate to depths of 100 to 1,000 meters. The energy on Mars is sufficient for the proliferation of life. However, the availability of liquid water limits biological activity, and water in these depths is likely frozen.
New pieces of evidence, even so, still suggest the existence of liquid water on Mars. Shreds of evidence show that water of about 300 m deep might have existed when Mars was warmer and wetter. There are also geologic pieces of proof of ice being deposited in regolith on the planet’s mid-latitudes. The ice is a potential source of liquid water when held at a pressure above the triple point.
The energy that could provide power to Martian microbes may be derived from the oxidation of numerous gases. CO and H2, which are photochemically produced in the Martian atmosphere, could penetrate into the soil. If so, these gases may be consumed as an energy source. This is done so by some terrestrial organisms such as Alcaligens, Desulfovibrio, Shewanella, Pseudomonas, Clostridium, and Acetobacterium. Aside from this, reactions from CO2, O2, H2 with either one or more of Fe(II), Fe(III), Mn (II) or gases H2, H2S, SO42-, S0, and CH4 are potential sources of energy for microorganisms.
A study by Davila et al. (2010), have proven that chloride deposits (sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, and magnesium chloride), at their deliquescence point, may provide liquid water in the subsurface of Mars. Their climate model also has shown that seasonally, the temperature in Mars reaches eutectic points of the mentioned chloride salts.
The presence of liquid water is supported by Mars’ geomorphological and mineralogical shreds of evidence. A...