Ballard, Connor J;
Preston, Louisa J;
Shah, Drashti;
Hills, Russell;
Cabrelli, Susi;
Cassar, Jasmine;
Enoma, Anita;
... Dunn, William R; + view all
(2023)
Testing the Limits of Biosignature Detection in Ca-sulphate Mixtures Through a Simulated Martian Environment.
Research Notes of the AAS
, 7
(11)
, Article 252. 10.3847/2515-5172/ad103f.
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Abstract
Mixtures of cyanobacterial microbial mat and Ca-sulphate minerals were exposed to a simulated Martian environment via the Thales Alenia Space's "MARSBalloon" Project in partnership with St Bernard's High School via the Orbyts science inclusivity program. FTIR spectroscopic analyses identified that at 50% Ca-sulphate, most microbial mat biosignatures were obscured under Earth conditions, except for the C–O stretch and polysaccharide O–H vibrational modes. At 75% Ca-sulphate concentrations, no spectral biosignatures were observed. However, after exposure to a simulated stratospheric Martian environment, partial dehydration of the Ca-sulphate occurred to reveal the spectral biosignatures. This has implications in the search for life on Mars, particularly within evaporite-rich environments similar to those being investigated by the Curiosity rover.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Testing the Limits of Biosignature Detection in Ca-sulphate Mixtures Through a Simulated Martian Environment |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2515-5172/ad103f |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad103f |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s), 2023. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182802 |
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