If tiny methanogens lived on ancient Mars, they could've planted the seed of their own demise, according to a new study.
live in places like hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, where they convert chemical energy from their environment and release methane as a waste product. The study shows that methanogens may have thrived underground on Mars.” It’s published in Nature Astronomy, and the senior authors are Regis Ferrière and Boris Sauterey.
There’s a critical difference between ancient Mars and Earth regarding this research. On Earth, most hydrogen is tied up in water molecules, and very little is on its own. But on Mars, it was abundant in the planet’s atmosphere. That hydrogen could’ve been the energy supply early methanogens needed to thrive. That same hydrogen would’ve helped trap heat in Mars’ atmosphere, keeping the planet habitable.
The research team used models of Mars’ climate, crust, and atmosphere to evaluate methanogens on ancient Mars. They also used a model of an ecological community of Earthlike microbes that metabolize hydrogen and carbon. By working with these ecosystem models, the researchers were able to predict whether methanogen populations were able to survive. But they went further; they were able to predict what effect these populations had on their environment.
While the atmosphere held abundant hydrogen and carbon the organisms could’ve used for energy, Mars’ surface was still cold. Not frozen like it is today, but much colder than modern Earth. The microorganisms would’ve benefited from the warmer temperatures underground, but the deeper you go, the less hydrogen and carbon are available.
“According to our results, Mars’ atmosphere would have been completely changed by biological activity very rapidly, within a few tens or hundreds of thousands of years,” Sauterey said. “By removing hydrogen from the atmosphere, microbes would have dramatically cooled down the planet’s climate.”
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