Are there insects on mars

Indeed, the strange new species recently discovered on the ISS by scientists at JPL and our lab included some of the similar adaptations as those found in clean rooms including resistance to high levels of radiation. As more and more extreme biology is catalogued in a programme called the Extreme Microbiome Project, there is also the potential to use the tools in their evolutionary toolbox for future work here on Earth. We can use their adaptations to look for new sunscreens, for example, or new DNA repair enzymes that can protect against harmful mutations which lead to cancers, or aid the development of novel drugs.

Eventually, humans will set foot on Mars, carrying the cocktail of microbes that live on and inside our bodies with them. These microbes too will likely adapt, mutate, and change.

And we can learn from them too. They may even make life on Mars more tolerable for those who go there, since the unique genomes adapting to the Martian environment could be sequenced, transmitted back to Earth for further characterisation, and then utilised for therapeutics and research on both planets. Given all the planned Martian missions, we are at the shore's edge of new era of inter-planetary biology, where we will learn about adaptations of an organism on one planet and apply them to another.

The lessons of evolution and genetic adaptations are inscribed in the DNA of every organism, and the Martian environment will be no different. Mars will write its new selection pressures on organisms that we will see when we sequence them, opening an entirely new catalogue of evolutionary literature. This is not just for idle curiosity, but rather a duty for our species to protect and preserve all other species.

Only humans understand extinction, and thus only humans can prevent it, which applies today as well as it does in billions of years, when the Earth's oceans begin to boil and the planet becomes too hot for life.

It is inevitable that some transfer of human and microbial biology will occur when we start to head off towards other stars, but in that case, we will have no choice. Eventually, careful and responsible forward contamination is the only way to preserve life, and it is a leap we must begin to make over the next years.

This artice has been updated on 13 May to provide additional information about the planetary protection procedures used by Nasa and during the Mars Sample Return Mission. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Nasa sterilises spacecraft components prior to assembly, and this has been corrected as planetary protection procedures do not call for sterlisation of individual components.

He researches the molecular and genetic effects of long-term human spaceflight on Nasa and other astronauts, as well as the design of new cell types for cancer therapy, and is the author of a new book published by MIT Press — The Next Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds. Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.

Could humans have contaminated Mars with life? Share using Email. By Christopher Mason 11th May Humanity has sent around 30 spacecraft and landers to the Red Planet since the space age began. Now, we know which microbes might have survived the trip, says geneticist Christopher Mason. Clean rooms might serve as an evolutionary selection process for the hardiest bugs that then may have a greater chance of surviving a journey to Mars.

You might also like: The weird space outside our solar system How a switch saved a Moon mission The giant plant astronomers can't find Forward contamination is undesirable from a scientific perspective too. Around the BBC. A return trip to the Atacama in and revealed that the same bugs were gradually reverting to a dormant state as the soil around them dried up.

Dr Schulze-Makuch said: "In the past researchers have found dying organisms near the surface and remnants of DNA but this is really the first time that anyone has been able to identify a persistent form of life living in the soil of the Atacama desert. Billions of years ago Mars had oceans and lakes where early life forms may have thrived.

As the planet dried up and grew colder, the Martian bugs could have survived in much the same way as their Atacama counterparts, the scientists believe. A European rover due to land on Mars in as part of the ExoMars mission will drill two metres into the soil to look for signs of life. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later?

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The images are blurry but seem to show some of the many rocks that litter the Martian landscape.

On Earth, animals, especially as complex as these, need lots of oxygen. There are only traces in Mars' atmosphere. Pareidolia, the human tendency to "see" recognizable shapes in random patterns, may be the mostly likely explanation for what Romoser thinks he is seeing.

It's a common phenomenon for some alien enthusiasts who enjoy looking through NASA Mars images for familiar-seeming objects.

I've done it myself and found all sorts of "alien faces" in rock formations. Mars pareidolia can be a fun pastime, but the Ohio University press release lends a sense of legitimacy to Romoser's claims. This isn't Romoser's first foray into fringe concepts related to Mars. He also issued two reports claiming to find evidence of "unidentified aerial phenomena on Mars.

NASA said the large majority of the scientific community agrees that current conditions on Mars are not suitable for liquid water or complex life. The jury is still out on the possibility of past microbial life on the Red Planet.