American and British researchers have shown that volcanoes on Mars could provide suitable conditions for microorganisms to live. The research results are published in the Icarus journal.
According to the authors of the work, the eruptions of huge Martian volcanoes could greatly affect the composition of the atmosphere: volcanoes emitted large amounts of gases, such as carbon monoxide, and sulfur. There have been periods in the history of Mars when its atmosphere was tenuous and contained little oxygen.
"This is important from an astrobiological point of view, since the conditions of a rarefied, oxygen-poor atmosphere are supposedly important for the emergence of life," the authors of the work note. "Such conditions are probably well suited for the synthesis of prebiotic organic compounds such as amino acids, and therefore make possible the emergence of life."
One of the authors, University of Washington researcher Stephen Shoals, recalled experiments carried out in the 1950s by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey. They proved that in a rarefied atmosphere and in the presence of liquid water, electrical discharges can provoke the formation of complex organic compounds.