Protecting Mars special regions with potential for life to propagate: Difference between revisions
Protecting Mars special regions with potential for life to propagate (edit)
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===Revisions of the definition of a special region===
The definition of a special region has been revised several times. In the 2006 study it was implicit that a special region must be defined by warm enough temperatures combined with sufficient water activity. If the Mars surface is mapped using those requirements alone and requiring them to overlap, the map would be blank
The 2014 study considers the potential for smaller and microscale habitats not detectable from orbit, where conditions differ from the environment of the surrounding landscape. It also finds that though both requirements are not present simultaneously, often they are present on the surface within a 24 hour period of each other due to the extreme day - night cycles on Mars. That then makes it possible that terrestrial biology could bridge the gap (e.g. retain the water through to warmer temperatures in the same day). For instance at the Curiosity and Viking sites temperatures in the daytime are regularly high enough for replication and at night relative humidity was above 0.6 and nearly always close to 1.0, and since both conditions occur in the same 24 hour period, there may be a way for organisms to connect the favorable aspects of these different periods through biotic adaptation {{refn|Referring to the Viking and Curiosity (MSL) landing sites they say (page 941 of<ref name=MarsSpecialRegions2014/>)
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