Scientists at Northwestern University found in their study, known as Deinococcus radiodurans on Earth, that researchers formerly called “Conan’s bacteria” survived for 280 million years because of their incredible ability to survive in some of the harshest conditions imaginable. They say you can stay. years in harsh radiation conditions similar to those of Mars.

The new research builds on previous research on the “Conan bacterium,” which found that this ancient bacterium can survive under harsh ionizing radiation for over a million years.

new data

In the study, published in the journal Astrobiology, scientists tested several “extremophile” fungi and bacteria, characterized by the ability to withstand extreme conditions that killed everything else, to see if they could cope with the unforgiving conditions of Mars.

Although some organisms can cope with the gamma rays that scientists bombarded them with, it was D. radiodurans that was “particularly well adapted” to the extreme cold and dryness of Mars, according to their estimations.

In new experiments, “Conan bacterium” survived astronomical amounts of radiation in a freezing, arid environment far longer than bacillus spores that could survive on Earth for millions of years.
– says the university’s report

Building on previous research showing that this hardy bacterium can withstand Martian radiation, the research team used spectrogram technology to measure the amount of manganese antioxidants in organisms’ cells, which is thought to reflect how well (and how long) they can survive. exposure. intense radiation.

Researchers hope to find bacteria under the Martian surface

As the researchers noted, the “Conan bacterium” couldn’t survive very long in the ultraviolet light emitted by the Sun on the Martian surface – but because it’s only 10 centimeters deep, it could live for 1.5 million years; When buried under 10 meters, this number increases to 280 million years.

If Martian life once existed, its macromolecules and viruses could have survived much longer, even if living life forms do not currently exist on Mars. This raises the likelihood of being discovered on future missions if life did develop on Mars.
— said Michael Daley, a professor of pathology at the U.S. Armed Forces University of Health Sciences, the study’s leader.

Daley and the Northwestern University team are now calling for future Mars missions that return samples and examine them to test them for radioactive uranium and make sure they do so safely for fear of extraterrestrial contamination on Earth.