Chile ’s Atacama Desert competes with parts of Antarctica for the championship of the driest place on Earth . This makes it a great analog for Mars , so the discovery of biography rebound after a rare rainfall has sex scientists who witnessed it . If nothing else , it proves just how bouncy liveliness can be .
The entire Atacama is very teetotal , but some parts experience rainfall often enough that , when it comes , efflorescence reverberate to life in awe - inspiringdisplays of beauty . The heart of the Atacama , however , is drier still , caught in the world ’s greatest rainwater - shadow , where the Andes soak up any piddle the prevailing jazz may obligate . Here some conditions station have never meet rain , and so much Strategic Arms Limitation Talks is deposit between times that when rain falls it immediately becomes very saline .
However , Professor Dirk Schulze - Makuchof Washington State University had the extraordinary luck to happen to be studying lifeforms in the Atacama in 2015 when some placement got their first rainfall in years .
Microbes have been found even in the driest Atacama , but these could have blown in on the wind ( something that certainly would not come about on Mars ) . Some biologists have reason these unfortunate microbes are slowly dying , unable to survive the retentive menstruum between drinks .
InProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Schulze - Makuch reports that even in this most hostile surroundings , life story has adapt . Although some of the microorganisms discover there may indeed be lost wanderers ineffective to survive , his squad witnessed the path the first touch of H2O brought many bacterium back from dormancy .
On comeback trips , Schulze - Makuch follow microbic community of interests reverting to quiescency as water dry out up . He also found hold up grounds the microbes he studied were part of an participating residential district , including biomolecules link up with viable cells , and differences in the make - up of microbic community of interests establish on grunge types and depths , with more salt - loving species swallow up where salinity is even greater , while UV - immune bacteria dominate the airfoil .
" It has always fascinated me to go to the places where people do n’t think anything could possibly hold out and discover that life story has somehow found a direction to make it work , " Schulze - Makuch said in astatement . " Jurassic Parkreferences aside , our inquiry tells us that if liveliness can persist in Earth ’s driest surround there is a good luck it could be hang in there on Mars in a similar style . "
If lifetime thrive during the era when Mars was pixilated , Schulze - Makuch argue , it would get opportunities to revive when ice freeze in the soil melts . Nevertheless , the combining of UV radioactivity , much large cold , and even long gap between wet periods , certainly means any Martian life would face a much tough environment even than the Atacama .
