NASA analysis revealed that Mars rovers may have to dig nearly seven feet below the surface to find evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet, and the discovery of some amino acids may be a possible sign of the existence of extraterrestrials because they are widely used in life On Earth as an ingredient for building proteins.
According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, proteins are essential for life because they are used to make enzymes that speed up or regulate chemical reactions and the formation of structures, however, new research by the US Space Agency has revealed that the amino acids in the surface of Mars are destroyed by cosmic rays. Much faster than previously thought.
Experts say this means rovers may have to dig 6.6 feet (two metres) or more below the surface of Mars to find signs of ancient life.
“Current Mars missions are down to two inches (about five centimeters), and at those depths, it would only take 20 million years to completely destroy the amino acids,” said Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Twenty million years is a relatively short period of time because scientists are looking for evidence of ancient life on the surface that existed billions of years ago when Mars was more like Earth,” Alexander added.
Research at this depth would counter the risk that small molecules, such as amino acids, could be degraded by ionizing radiation from space.