S27E55: Martian Mysteries: Curiosity Uncovers Clues to Ancient Earth-Like Conditions

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 55 for broadcast on the 6th of May 2024.

[00:00:07] Coming up on SpaceTime, new findings pointing to an Earth-like environment on ancient Mars.

[00:00:14] Could the colour purple be the new green in the search for alien life?

[00:00:19] And High Impulse's SR-75 rocket blasts off from South Australia.

[00:00:24] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:29] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:48] A new study using data from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover says there was once an Earth-like environment

[00:00:54] on ancient Mars.

[00:00:56] The findings reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets points to the discovery

[00:01:01] of manganese-rich sandstones which indicate there were once habitable conditions in

[00:01:06] the Red Planet Scale crater.

[00:01:09] These minerals are common in shallow-oxic waters found on lakeshores on Earth and scientists

[00:01:14] think it's remarkable to find such recognisable features on ancient Mars.

[00:01:19] The claims are based on observations by Curiosity's KenKam instrument which has identified higher

[00:01:24] than usual amounts of manganese in lake bed rocks within the crater.

[00:01:29] These indicate that the sediments were formed either in a river, a delta or near the

[00:01:33] shoreline of an ancient lake.

[00:01:35] The studies lead author Patrick Gaster from the Los Alamos National Laboratory says it's

[00:01:40] difficult for manganese oxide to form on the surface of Mars.

[00:01:43] Consequently he didn't expect to find it in such high concentrations on an ancient

[00:01:47] shoreline deposit.

[00:01:49] On Earth these types of deposits happen all the time.

[00:01:52] That's because of the high oxygen content in the Earth's atmosphere that's produced

[00:01:56] by photosynthetic life and from microbes that help catalyze those manganese oxidation

[00:02:02] reactions.

[00:02:03] Of course on Mars, scientists have no evidence for life and the mechanism to produce oxygen

[00:02:09] in Mars's ancient atmosphere remains unclear.

[00:02:12] So exactly how these manganese oxides were formed and concentrated there is somewhat

[00:02:17] puzzling.

[00:02:19] The findings point to larger processes occurring in the Martian atmosphere or in surface

[00:02:23] water and shows that more work needs to be done to better understand the oxidation

[00:02:28] processes taking place on Mars.

[00:02:31] The Kincam instrument was developed by Los Alamos together with CNES the French Space Agency.

[00:02:37] It uses a laser which fires at some rock particles turning part of the surface of the rock into

[00:02:42] a plasma and it then collects the light from that plasma in order to obtain a spectra

[00:02:47] which quantifies the elemental composition in those rocks.

[00:02:51] The sorts of sedimentary rocks explored by the Curiosity rover on Mars have always

[00:02:55] been a mixture of sand, silts and muds.

[00:02:59] The sandy rocks are more porous and groundwater can more easily pass through sands compared to

[00:03:04] the muds that make up most of the lake bed rocks in Calcrater.

[00:03:08] The research team looked at how manganese could have been enriched in these sands, for

[00:03:12] example by percolation of groundwater through the sands on the shore of the lake or

[00:03:17] the mouth of a delta and they're also looking at what oxidant could be responsible

[00:03:21] for the precipitation of manganese in these rocks.

[00:03:24] See it's really simple.

[00:03:26] More on Earth manganese becomes enriched because of the oxygen in the atmosphere.

[00:03:31] This process is sped up by the presence of the microbes.

[00:03:35] Microbes on Earth can use many oxidation states of manganese as an energy source for

[00:03:39] metabolism.

[00:03:41] Now if life was present on Mars, the increased amounts of manganese in these rocks along

[00:03:45] the lake shore would have been a helpful energy source for life.

[00:03:49] What it all means is that gal crater lake environment as revealed by these ancient

[00:03:53] rocks is providing scientists with a window into what was a habitable environment that

[00:03:58] when you think about it really looks surprisingly similar to many places we see on Earth today.

[00:04:05] And that's fascinating.

[00:04:07] This is space time.

[00:04:09] Still to come, could the colour purple be the new green in the search for alien life?

[00:04:14] And Germany's Heimpulse SR-75 rocket blasts off from South Australia.

[00:04:20] All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:04:38] A new study suggests that life on other planets with different atmospheres and orbiting different

[00:04:43] types of stars wouldn't necessarily display Earth-like forests of green.

[00:04:49] The findings reported in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hypothesize

[00:04:54] that purple might be a better signature colour to search for in the hunt for life beyond

[00:04:58] Earth.

[00:04:59] Now that might sound counterintuitive, after all from house plants and gardens

[00:05:04] to fields and forests, green is the colour we most associate with surface life here on

[00:05:09] Earth where conditions favour the evolution of organisms that perform oxygen producing

[00:05:14] photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll.

[00:05:18] But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different, potentially

[00:05:22] covered by bacteria that receives little or no visible lighter oxygen.

[00:05:26] Now we actually see that in some environments here on Earth especially deep underground.

[00:05:31] And instead some of these use invisible infrared radiation to power their version of photosynthesis.

[00:05:38] For example, instead of green many such bacteria on Earth contain purple pigments.

[00:05:43] And if they dominated on purple worlds, those planets would produce a distinctive purple-light

[00:05:48] fingerprint which might be detectable by new next generation telescopes.

[00:05:53] The studies lead author Legear Fonseca Kohler from Cornell University says purple

[00:05:58] bacteria can thrive under a wide range of conditions.

[00:06:01] And that makes it one of the primary contenders for life that could dominate a variety of

[00:06:05] different worlds.

[00:06:07] So scientists need to create a database for science of life to make sure telescopes

[00:06:12] don't miss life if it happens not to look exactly like what we encounter around us

[00:06:16] here on Earth every day.

[00:06:18] So far, astronomers have confirmed the existence of more than 5500 exoplanets, planets

[00:06:24] that orbit stars other than the Sun.

[00:06:26] That includes over 30 potential Earth-like planets.

[00:06:30] Planned observatories such as the Extremely Large Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory

[00:06:35] will explore the chemical makeup of these worlds in their host star's habitable zone.

[00:06:40] The habitable zone are orbits around stars where temperatures would allow liquid water,

[00:06:45] central for life as we know it to exist on a planet's surface.

[00:06:49] Using Life on Earth as a guide, researchers have started the task of cataloging the

[00:06:53] various colors and chemical signatures that a diverse range of organisms and minerals

[00:06:58] would present in an exoplanet's reflected light.

[00:07:01] Colour and Colleagues collected and grew samples of more than 20 purple sulfur and

[00:07:05] purple non-sulfur bacteria found in a variety of environments ranging from

[00:07:10] shallow waters, coasts, marshes and deep sea hydrothermal vents.

[00:07:15] What's collectively referred to as purple bacteria actually have a range of colours

[00:07:19] including yellow, orange, brown and red.

[00:07:22] That's due to the pigments related to those that make tomatoes red and carrots orange.

[00:07:27] They thrive on low-energy red or infrared light using simpler photosynthesis systems

[00:07:33] utilizing forms of chlorophyll that absorb infrared light and don't make oxygen.

[00:07:38] They're likely to have been most prevalent early on in Earth's history,

[00:07:41] long before the advent of plant type photosynthesis and they could be especially well suited

[00:07:46] to planets that orbit cooler spectrotype M red dwarf stars which just happen to be

[00:07:51] the most common type of star in the Milky Way galaxy making up some 75% of all stars in the galaxy.

[00:07:58] They already thrive on Earth in very specific and unique environments where they don't have

[00:08:03] to compete with green plants out your bacteria. A red sun would give them the most favourable

[00:08:08] conditions for photosynthesis. After measuring the purple bacteria's bio pigments and light

[00:08:14] signatures the authors created models of Earth-like planets with varying conditions

[00:08:19] across a range of simulated environments both wet and dry. They found that purple bacteria

[00:08:26] actually produced intensely coloured bio signatures. If purple bacteria were thriving on the surface

[00:08:32] of a frozen Earth, an ocean world, a snowball Earth or a modern Earth orbiting a cooler star

[00:08:37] science now has the tools to search for them. The studies co-author Lisa Kalteneger also from

[00:08:43] Kernel says detecting a pale purple dot in another star system would trigger intensive observations

[00:08:49] of the planet to try to rule out other colour sources such as colourful minerals. Of course

[00:08:54] finding life on another world even single celled organisms would profoundly change our understanding

[00:09:00] of the universe. Kalteneger says it would revolutionise our thinking of the age old

[00:09:05] question are we alone in the universe? It would suggest that life must be widespread throughout

[00:09:13] the cosmos. We live in an incredible time. We found more than 5500 worlds that circle other stars

[00:09:25] and among those we found the first couple that actually are at the right distance so they could

[00:09:32] have liquid water on the surface like Earth does. And now the question becomes could some of them

[00:09:41] actually host life and what other science we need to be able to spot to discover whether we

[00:09:50] alone in the universe or not? Of course first we think about ooh green plants and then blue oceans

[00:09:59] and another pale blue dot. But when you go deeper and look at the incredible diversity of life

[00:10:06] on our planet there are so many different organisms that could dominate another world.

[00:10:16] So this is actually purple cyanobacteria. We use these because purple bacteria it's a group of

[00:10:23] organisms that are quite different from the other phototrophs on Earth. It's not only the

[00:10:28] colour that is different but it's also the type of energy they feed on. They actually do photosynthesis

[00:10:34] on heat, on the infrared. This means that when they reflect biopigments or reflect biosignatures

[00:10:43] of these biopigments those signatures those fingerprints will be in different sides of

[00:10:48] the spectra that usually we are not used to look for. We don't want to miss signs of life

[00:10:57] just because we are too narrow minded and focused just on what we see in our backyard.

[00:11:04] So each world including ours and all the planets in our solar system have its own

[00:11:11] light fingerprint. And what I mean by that is that the light of the star hits the surface of

[00:11:16] the planet and also gets filtered through the air of the planet and then reflects

[00:11:21] and can get caught in my telescope. So what you're really trying to do is decipher the

[00:11:29] light of a tiny dot and figure out if there's something in it, in this light,

[00:11:34] in this light fingerprint that tells you that there's biota and life on this world.

[00:11:44] So this paper is an idea like hey let's not make this even harder by limiting our approach.

[00:11:52] Let's make sure that we extend our power of observation to all the possibilities and

[00:11:58] all the range of the spectrum. We have the hardest time finding life because it is at the

[00:12:08] edge of technical possibility even with the biggest telescopes we can currently build.

[00:12:13] So if we find life on one world what that means is that it must exist on so many others

[00:12:21] that we just haven't encountered yet. This is why I am super excited about any life we could

[00:12:28] find out there because it just tells you that if we can find one occurrence it must be everywhere.

[00:12:45] And this space time. Still to come, Heimpulz's SR-75 rocket blasts off from South Australia

[00:12:53] and later in the science report a new study looks at why people prefer their alcoholic beverages

[00:12:58] cold. All that and more still to come on space time. Germany's Heimpulz have successfully

[00:13:20] launched their SR-75 sounding rocket on a test flight from Southern Launcher's Cunabitess range

[00:13:26] west of Sejuna on South Australia's West Coast. The launch of the light-discantled mission

[00:13:31] had been delayed by three days due to weather conditions and a last-minute delay caused

[00:13:37] by a range violation held up the launch countdown clock for a few more minutes before ignition.

[00:13:43] Lyftoff finally saw the gleaming white missile shoot high off into a clear blue sky

[00:13:48] on a fiery golden orange plume. The SR-75 launch vehicle climbed to an altitude of more than 50

[00:13:54] kilometers on a suborbital ballistic trajectory before parachuting back to the earth for a recovery

[00:14:00] downrange. It's only the second launch program from Southern Launcher's Cunabitess range.

[00:14:06] The range is designed to test rockets and payloads by launching them at space and then

[00:14:10] returning them to the earth for collection and examination all on the same site.

[00:14:15] The first launch program at the complex was for Adelaide company DWC Systems back in September 2020.

[00:14:22] That included a failed launch on September 15th followed by two successful launches four days

[00:14:27] later in order to collect data for new CubeSat electronic warfare technology.

[00:14:32] The SR-75 launch vehicle is a single-stage suborbital rocket. It's designed to carry

[00:14:38] payloads of up to 250 kilograms to a maximum altitude of around 200 kilometers. The rocket's

[00:14:44] powered by a unique high-plot 75 rocket engine which uses a paraffin wax fuel non-explosive until it's

[00:14:51] combined with its liquid oxygen oxidizer. The SR-75 is part of a test program by Hyimpulse

[00:14:57] who are developing a much larger SL1 orbital launch vehicle using the same basic technology

[00:15:03] but with 10 high-plot 75 engines. The three-stage 33-meter tall SL1 should be capable of launching

[00:15:10] payloads of up to 600 kilograms into low earth orbit. As for this mission's name, Lightness

[00:15:16] Candle, well that's obviously a play on the fact that it's using a paraffin wax fuel,

[00:15:19] but it also plays homage to Alan Shepard's famous quote prior to America's first manned

[00:15:24] spaceflight aboard Freedom 7. That was launched on a Mercury Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral

[00:15:30] back on May 5th 1961. As well as the Cunabaloon site, Southern Launchers are also developing

[00:15:36] a launch complex at Whayla's Way which is south of Port Lincoln near the tip of the air peninsula.

[00:15:41] That'll specialize in orbital launches over the Southern Ocean. This is Space Time.

[00:15:49] Time to take a brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week

[00:16:07] with the Science Report. A new study has found that being vegetarian was linked to a much

[00:16:13] slower progression of prostate cancer. The findings reported in the Journal of the American

[00:16:18] Medical Association involved a study of over 2,000 men with prostate cancer. It found that

[00:16:24] those who ate lots of plant foods or went vegetarian or even vegan had a far lower risk

[00:16:29] of their cancers progressing compared to those who ate the fewest plant foods. Now while this

[00:16:34] study cannot prove that eating vegetables, fruits and whole grains were directly

[00:16:39] affecting the progression of the disease, the authors say that the multitude of other benefits

[00:16:43] from a plant-based diet means men with prostate cancer really should consider swapping out their

[00:16:49] meat or more veggies. Sighters have found a new way of cleaning up perron polyp through

[00:16:55] alkalis the so-called forever chemicals because they're so hard to remove from the environment

[00:17:00] once they're there. In fact these are a major source of environmental contamination.

[00:17:06] Now a report in the journal Nature claims scientists have developed a way to break down

[00:17:10] these chemicals taking a step towards solving their major pollution challenge. The process uses

[00:17:16] a combination of treatments which have already shown some limited ability to break down perron

[00:17:21] polyp through alkalis separately. Now in real-world scenarios say like using firefighting foams,

[00:17:27] the tandem treatments were able to break down the chemical bonds which is a key step

[00:17:32] in decontamination. These forever chemicals have been in widespread production since the 1950s

[00:17:37] and it's thought every human being on the planet has been contaminated by them. They've also liched

[00:17:43] into soils and drinking water supplies. They were popular because of their ability to resist

[00:17:49] heat, water, grease and stains. In fact over 14,000 different types of chemical combinations

[00:17:55] have now been developed from these perron polyp through alkalis substances.

[00:17:59] They've found their way into products ranging from some types of firefighting firms to non-stick

[00:18:04] fry pans, carpets, leather and apparel, textiles, paper and packaging, coatings,

[00:18:10] rubber, food processing and plastics. Okay I'm a bourbon neat sort of guy but most

[00:18:17] whiskey drinkers I know prefer it over rocks. In other words they likely license it.

[00:18:22] Now a report in the journal Matter may have found the reason why people tend to prefer their

[00:18:27] alcoholic beverages cold. Two Chinese researchers were having a beer together when they decided to

[00:18:33] investigate why specific alcohol concentrations were popular in different drinks especially Chinese

[00:18:38] whiskey. They found that molecules in alcoholic beverages interacted differently with each other

[00:18:44] depending on their ethanol concentration but these different interactions became more

[00:18:48] similar under different temperatures. For example they found that in Chinese whiskey with 38 to

[00:18:54] 42 percent ethanol content acts differently to 52 to 53 percent ethanol content in room temperature

[00:19:01] but that difference disappears when you warm it up. To prove their point they say professional

[00:19:07] alcohol tasters have often reported a stronger ethanol like taste in their beer when it's chilled

[00:19:13] and can only distinguish between different concentrations of Chinese whiskey before it's

[00:19:17] been warmed and that means the right temperature could theoretically be used to give a lower

[00:19:22] ethanol beverage a similar taste to a more desirable high concentration beverage.

[00:19:29] Time now for the most ridiculous story of the week and a popular Russian psychic has put a

[00:19:34] reputation on the line claiming the Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its final phase

[00:19:39] and it should be over within a year or so with what she claims will be a Russian victory.

[00:19:44] Tim Mendham from Astray and Skeptic says it's nowhere to run a war. According to a

[00:19:49] leading psychic they're all leading by the way. All leading psychic. No one says I'm a mediocre

[00:19:54] psychiatrist named Adelina Panina she's Russian and she says the turning point or the beginning of

[00:19:59] the end will be at the end of April which is finished or May start of May so this month etc.

[00:20:04] The war in Ukraine will start to end and it'll be definitive and everyone's will say yes

[00:20:08] and that eventually and that she adds on that the entire SVO she says the SVO is what

[00:20:14] the Kremlin has been referring to as the Special Military Operation what the rest of the world

[00:20:19] refers to as an invasion and that will be completed in 2025 maybe and that Zelensky will

[00:20:25] not be captured he'll leave Ukraine by some means quietly and unnoticed he will escape so

[00:20:30] Russia will be successful in its special military operation and the rest of the world

[00:20:34] even our most important opponents she says will understand no one will be able to defeat

[00:20:39] Russia on the battlefield. Now she's obviously a very patriotic Russian speaking to Russian

[00:20:43] media which doesn't tend to sort of carry a lot of negative vibes and of course we will remember

[00:20:48] this and we will be reporting on it in 2025 to see how accurate she was I think we can

[00:20:54] skeptically refer to this as stupid that's your scientific evaluation that's my scientific

[00:20:58] evaluation put this one in the silly basket that's Tim Endham from Australian Skeptics

[00:21:06] and that's the show for now. Spacetime is available every Monday Wednesday and Friday

[00:21:24] through Apple Podcasts iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Acast, Amazon

[00:21:31] Music, Bites.com, SoundCloud, YouTube, your favorite podcast download provider and from

[00:21:38] spacetimewithstewettgarry.com. Spacetimes also broadcast through the National Science Foundation

[00:21:44] on Science Zone Radio and on both iHeart Radio and TuneIn Radio and you can help to support

[00:21:50] our show by visiting the spacetime store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies

[00:21:55] or by becoming a spacetime patron which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions

[00:22:00] of the show as well as lots of bonus audio content which doesn't go to air access to our

[00:22:05] exclusive Facebook group and other rewards just go to spacetimewithstewettgarry.com

[00:22:11] for full details and if you want more spacetime please check out our blog where you'll find

[00:22:16] all the stuff we couldn't fit in the show as well as heaps of images, new stories, loads of videos

[00:22:22] and things on the web I find interesting or amusing just go to spacetimewithstewettgarry.tumblr.com

[00:22:29] that's all one word and that's Tumblr without the E you can also follow us through at

[00:22:34] stewardgarry on Twitter at spacetimewithstewettgarry on Instagram through our spacetime

[00:22:39] YouTube channel and on Facebook just go to facebook.com forward slash spacetime with

[00:22:45] stewardgarry you've been listening to spacetime with stewardgarry this has been another quality

[00:22:51] podcast production from bites.com