Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere: Difference between revisions
Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere (edit)
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At night, the water activity is high enough for life, but it is too cold, and in the day time it is warm enough but too dry. The authors concluded that the conditions in the Curiosity region were probably beyond the habitability range for replication and metabolism of known terrestrial micro-organisms.<ref name=Rincon>{{cite web|last1=Rincon Science editor|first1=Paul|title=Evidence of liquid water found on Mars|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32287609|website=BBC News website|date=April 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Martín-TorresZorzano2015">{{cite journal|last1=Martín-Torres|first1=F. Javier|last2=Zorzano|first2=María-Paz|last3=Valentín-Serrano|first3=Patricia|last4=Harri|first4=Ari-Matti|last5=Genzer|first5=Maria|last6=Kemppinen|first6=Osku|last7=Rivera-Valentin|first7=Edgard G.|last8=Jun|first8=Insoo|last9=Wray|first9=James|last10=Bo Madsen|first10=Morten|last11=Goetz|first11=Walter|last12=McEwen|first12=Alfred S.|last13=Hardgrove|first13=Craig|last14=Renno|first14=Nilton|last15=Chevrier|first15=Vincent F.|last16=Mischna|first16=Michael|last17=Navarro-González|first17=Rafael|last18=Martínez-Frías|first18=Jesús|last19=Conrad|first19=Pamela|last20=McConnochie|first20=Tim|last21=Cockell|first21=Charles|last22=Berger|first22=Gilles|last23=R. Vasavada|first23=Ashwin|last24=Sumner|first24=Dawn|last25=Vaniman|first25=David|title=Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars|journal=Nature Geoscience|year=2015|issn=1752-0894|doi=10.1038/ngeo2412|volume=8|issue=5|pages=357–361|bibcode=2015NatGe...8..357M}}</ref>
==Hydrogen peroxide based life that may avoid liquid water==
Joop Houtkooper and Dirk Schulze Makuch proposed in 2007 that life on Mars may be using a mixture of water and biogenically created [[hydrogen peroxide]] as its internal solvent. He gave this as a possible form of life to explain some puzzling aspects of the [[Viking lander biological experiments]]. On cooling, the eutectic of 61.2% (by weight) mix of water and hydrogen peroxide has a freezing point of −56.5 °C, and also tends to [[super-cool]] rather than crystallize. It is also [[hygroscopic]], an advantage in a water-scarce environment.<ref>{{cite journal| url=http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EPSC2007/00439/EPSC2007-J-00439.pdf|format=PDF| journal=EPSC Abstracts| volume= 2| id= EPSC2007-A-00439| date=2007| publisher=European Planetary Science Congress 2007| title=The H2O2-H2O Hypothesis: Extremophiles Adapted to Conditions on Mars?| first=Joop M.| last= Houtkooper|author2=Dirk Schulze-Makuch| bibcode=2007epsc.conf..558H| pages=558}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001109/| title=Europlanet : Life's a bleach| date=2007-08-24| first=Doug| last= Ellison| publisher=Planetary.org}}</ref>. It would prefer regions with lower temperatures, and would avoid liquid water. Conditions at the poles would be optimal, but it could also survive in the equatorial regions visited by Viking<ref name=peroxide_life>{{cite journal | title = A Possible Biogenic Origin for Hydrogen Peroxide on Mars | journal = International Journal of Astrobiology | volume = 6 | issue = 2 | pages = 147 | date = 2007-05-22 | first = Joop M. | last = Houtkooper |author2=Dirk Schulze-Makuch | doi = 10.1017/S1473550407003746 | arxiv = physics/0610093 |bibcode = 2007IJAsB...6..147H }}</ref>
== See also==
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