There are fewer and fewer hopes for detecting bacterial life on the Red Planet, say scientists who have found toxic substances on the surface of Mars that are destructive to all living things.
Mars, in principle, cannot be inhabited - simply because it is covered with something like an antibacterial layer of a poisonous substance.
“It's all about perchlorates, that is, highly oxidized forms of chlorine. Under Earth conditions, these substances can be food for the simplest organisms, but on Mars, where ultraviolet radiation is much more intense, perchlorates turn into highly toxic killers of bacteria,”says Professor Charles Cockell of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In general, it is not known whether Mars was once inhabited in the past, but there is practically no doubt that organic life simply cannot exist on its surface.
But at least one problem is excluded, which haunted some scientists. Now you don't have to worry about the fact that the research vehicles present on Mars will "infect" the Red Planet with terrestrial microorganisms.
Bacteria from Earth will not survive on a fourth planet covered in perchlorates.
Kolesnikov Andrey
