Possible present day habitats for life on Mars (Including potential Mars special regions): Difference between revisions

{{quote|The burden of proof for confirming the existence of life outside of our planet will be unprecedented in scientific history. Finding extraterrestrial microorganisms (whether fossil or extant) would provide the most direct evidence of life. Given planetary protection concerns, we are more likely to sample fossil microorganisms, but the biogenicity of ancient terrestrial microfossils is greatly debated owing to often poor preservation. Thus, other biosignatures are typically required to establish the biogenicity of putative ancient microfossils and other microbial structures. By developing additional novel biosignatures and combining multiple techniques for establishing biogenicity, we can find evidence of life that is more convincing. Such techniques would provide invaluable tools for the search for extraterrestrial life. This session seeks to highlight work being done to develop novel biosignatures or to use established biosignatures to search for new evidence of early life on Earth and/or past or present life on Mars.}}

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'''''Biosignature Detection on Mars: Where, What, When, Why, and How?'''''

{{quote|Finding evidence of extant life on Mars would be a watershed event. We have evidence on Mars for many environments that may have been habitable in the past, but the range of possible biogeochemistries those environments allow, the co-evolution of those environments with life, the specific niches that are most likely to host detectable biosignatures, and the path forward to explore those environments are still key unknowns. We invite contributions that (1) explore the succession of physical and environmental processes and their combination on Early Mars, (2) evaluate (ideally quantitatively!) the geo/environmental context of potential sites for biological exploration of Mars, (3) detail the most promising locations, instrument concepts, and strategies for investigating these ecosystems, (4) define the relevant objects, substances or patterns that could serve as definitive biosignatures for martian life, and (5) investigate metabolisms, survival strategies, and energy sources that may be relevant to the search for biosignatures on Mars.}}