User:Robertinventor/Present day habitability of Mars-removed-sections

Sections removed from User:Robertinventor/Present day habitability of Mars

Life that is dormant for millions of years
OLD SECTION NEEDS TO BE UPDATED

Benton Clark III, a member of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team, surmises that Martian organisms could be adapted to a sort of suspended animation for millions of years. Indeed, some organisms can endure extreme environments for a time. Measurements performed on Earth under 50 meters of permafrost, showed that half of the microorganisms would accumulate enough radiation from radioactive decay in rocks to die in 10 million years, but if organisms come back to life every few million years they could repair themselves and reset any damaged systems, especially DNA. Other scientists are in agreement.

Life in Geological hot spots
< Old section - needs to be updated with more recent refs >

Remains of hot springs like the ones in Yellowstone National Park have been spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Minerals associated with ancient hot springs, such as opal and silica have been studied on the ground by Spirit and Opportunity Rovers and mapped from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Deep underground, there may be places where similar conditions are found to this day - where life may occur adapted to extremely high temperatures (80° to 110 °C). An underground magma chamber might melt ice, then circulate water through the ground.