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Potential Habitability of Present-day Mars Subsurface for Terrestrial-like Methanogens

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
astro-ph.EP
November 25, 2024
Filed under , , , , , , , , , ,
Potential Habitability of Present-day Mars Subsurface for Terrestrial-like Methanogens
Panel a: spatial distribution of 95th percentile values of ice contingency (at depth >5 m; light blue shaded area) and of Th concentration (yellow shaded area labeled with capital letters). Dashed red rectangles delimit the most seismically active regions according to the InSight mission (Ceylan et al., 2023). Panel b: intersection of the two previous maps. Yellow and red shaded areas (labeled with A and B) show the regions where values of both the 95th percentile and 99th percentile of Cv(5, long,lat) and [Th](long,lat) coincide. The faint white dots show the spatial distribution of pitted cones structures (modified from Mills et al., 2024). The black dots show the spatial distribution of candidate and confirmed SRLs according to Mcewen et al., (2021); Stilmann et al., (2016), and Oijha et al., (2014). The red dot shows the McLaughlin Crater with exposed carbonate rocks and signs of groundwater activity (Michalski et al., 2013). Gray in the background shows the Mars topography based on MOLA — astro-ph.E

The intense debate about the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere has stimulated the study of methanogens adapted to terrestrial habitats that mimic Martian environments.

We examinate the environmental conditions, energy sources and ecology of terrestrial methanogens thriving in deep crystalline fractures, sub-sea hypersaline lakes and subglacial water bodies considered as analogs of a hypothetical habitable Martian subsurface.

We combine this information with recent data on the distribution of buried water or ice and radiogenic elements on Mars and with models of the subsurface thermal regime of this planet to identify a 4.3-8.8 km-deep regolith habitat at the mid-latitude location of Acidalia Planitia, that might fit the requirements for hosting putative Martian methanogens analogous to the methanogenic families Methanosarcinaceae and Methanomicrobiaceae.

Andrea Butturini, Robert Benaiges-Fernandez, Octavi Fors, Daniel Garcia-Castellanos

Comments: 75 pages, 6 Figures, 3 Tables, Submitted to AstroBiology
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2411.15064 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2411.15064v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.15064
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Submission history
From: Octavi Fors
[v1] Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:52:04 UTC (1,914 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.15064

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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