Stowaway Earth Microbes May Survive on Mars, Contaminating the Search for Life
Mars: Harborer of Life? Relax, David Bowie: in all likelihood there is life on Mars. Unfortunately for those of us hoping to find organic life forms thriving elsewhere in our solar system, there's a reasonably good chance the microbial life we might someday find on Mars was put there by us. Searching for life -- or signs that it once existed -- on Mars is one of NASA's primary objectives when it comes to exploring the red planet. So when we launch probes at the surface or pack up rovers like Spirit or Opportunity for deployment on the surface, it's protocol to swab everything down so as to keep Mars pristine. But a recent study coming out of the University of Central Florida showed that some microbial communities common on spacecraft can survive both the sterilization process on Earth and the hostile conditions on Mars. Replicating the Martian environment, the researchers...