This is the main conclusion of a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and the results suggest that Mars hosted a nitrogen cycle at some point in their evolution as a planet.
The presence of nitrogen was verified by the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) instrument samples taken at three different sites, the CSIC said in a press release.
Two of them come from boreholes drilled into the rock baptized during the mission as Sheepbed in Yellowknife Bay, a place where at some point it is believed that there were lakes and rivers. The third sample comes from a sand deposit representative of Mars dust.
Francisco Javier Martín Torres, the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (joint CSIC and University of Granada), explained that the availability of useful biochemical nitrogen, together with the conditions that “we believe that existed on Mars and the possible presence of organic compounds in the soil, reflect a potentially habitable stage for some kind of living in last “.
As to whether life could exist on Mars today, both underground and on the surface, the existence of fixed nitrogen is a factor to consider because it is a essential in the synthesis of molecules such important life as proteins, RNA and DNA element, explained the researcher.
However, according to this study, Mars is not a mechanism that is known to fixed nitrogen back into the atmosphere and keep the nitrogen cycle as it does on Earth.
Therefore, researchers suggest that if there was ever life on the surface of Mars was not a widespread presence across the planet, although this should be contrasted with later studies.
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