Geyser (Mars): Difference between revisions

 

==Hypothetical biological origin==

[[Image:DDS MSO.jpg|thumb|right|200px|DDS-MSO hypothesis.]]

A team of Hungarian scientists propose that the dark dune spots and channels may be colonies of [[photosynthesis|photosynthetic]] Martian microorganisms, which over-winter beneath the ice cap, and as the [[sunlight]] returns to the pole during early spring, light penetrates the ice, the microorganisms photosynthesise and heat their immediate surroundings. A pocket of liquid water, which would normally evaporate instantly in the thin Martian atmosphere, is trapped around them by the overlying ice. As this ice layer thins, the microorganisms show through grey. When it has completely melted, they rapidly desiccate and turn black surrounded by a grey aureole.<ref name=Andras /><ref>{{Cite book| author=Pócs, T. |author2=A. Horváth |author3=T. Gánti |author4=Sz. Bérczi |author5=E. Szathmáry |title=ESA SP-545 - Possible crypto-biotic-crust on Mars?| publisher=European Space Agency| date=2003| url=http://www.colbud.hu/esa/publications/28CBC8ESASP-545pp265-266.pdf| format=PDF| accessdate=24 November 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Dark Dune Spots: Possible Biomarkers on Mars?|journal=Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres|date=31 October 2003 |first=Tibor|last=Gánti|author2=András Horváth |author3=Szaniszló Bérczi |author4=Albert Gesztesi |author5=Eörs Szathmáry |volume= 33|issue=s 4–5|pages=515–557|doi=10.1023/A:1025705828948|url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/ut8r78131173254n/|accessdate=18 November 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Pócs, T. |author2=A. Horváth |author3=T. Gánti |author4=S. Bérczi |author5=E. Szathmáry |title=38th Vernadsky-Brown Microsymposium on Comparative Planetology - Are the dark dune spots remnants of the crypto-biotic-crust of Mars? |place=Moscow, Russia |date=27–29 October 2003 |url=http://www.colbud.hu/esa/publications/26MosCBC10color.pdf |format=[[PDF]] |accessdate=7 September 2009 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721104952/http://www.colbud.hu/esa/publications/26MosCBC10color.pdf |archivedate=21 July 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref> The Hungarian scientists think that even a complex sublimation process is insufficient to explain the formation and evolution of the dark dune spots in space and time.<ref name=Planetary /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monochrom.at/dark-dune-spots/ |title=Dark Dune Spots – Could it be that it’s alive? |accessdate=4 September 2009 |author=András Sik |author2=Ákos Kereszturi |publisher=Monochrom }} (Audio interview, MP3 6 min.)</ref> Since their discovery, fiction writer [[Arthur C. Clarke]] promoted these formations as deserving of study from an [[astrobiology|astrobiological]] perspective.<ref name=Orme />