Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
The efforts of NASA and the European Space Agency have brought us tantalizingly close to concrete evidence of life on Mars, even discovering evidence that the planet was once covered with water, but the “aha!” moment where we find biological life is yet to come.
Now, a husband-and-wife team at the University of Kansas are working on a new technique that could help the space agencies in their ongoing search: An improved way to detect condensed aromatic carbon, long believed to be a chemical signature of astrobiology.
Alison Olcott Marshall, assistant professor of geology at the University of Kansas, and Craig Marshall, an expert in the use of Raman spectroscopy to search for carbonaceous materials, explained that since the harsh surface conditions found on Mars today make it unlikely that any life exists there today, the focus should be on finding what that life may have left behind.
“If we’re going to identify life on Mars, it will likely be the fossil remnants of the chemicals once synthesized by life,” Craig, an associate professor at KU, added in a statement, “and we hope our research helps strengthen the ability to evaluate the evidence collected on Mars.”
Raman spectroscopy isn’t enough
In their new study, which was published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the Marshalls explain that Rama spectroscopy can find carbonaceous (carbon-containing) material, but is unable to pinpoint its source. Alone it is insufficient for finding signs of life on Mars, and it needs to be supplemented with a different type of technology.
Using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy to supplement Raman spectroscopy, however, would make it easier to locate evidence of ancient extraterrestrial life. The couple is currently testing their proposal by using Raman spectroscopy to analyze Earth-based rocks similar to those found on Mars, and they hope to publish their findings in the near future.
The Marshalls explained their findings in the study, “the combined approach of Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry biomarker analysis to Precambrian sedimentary rocks, which taken together, provides a promising new methodology for readily detecting and rapidly screening samples for immature organic material amenable to successful biomarker analysis.”
“Previous research into how Raman spectroscopy would fare on Mars was mainly done on pure salts and minerals, often ones synthesized in a lab,” Alison added in a statement. “We identified field sites… with a chemical content more like what could be found on Mars, right down to the rusty dust, and we’ve been exploring how Raman spectroscopy fares in such an environment.”
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