People might assume the search for life on Mars ended when NASA's first rovers sent back images of the planet's barren, inhospitable surface. However, as scientists broaden their understanding of the extreme conditions in which life can flourish here on Earth—and expand their notions of what extraterrestrial life might look like—the search for life on Mars continues.
In recent years, NASA missions have found evidence of abundant perchlorate salts on the Martian surface. Perchlorate salts can collect and combine with water from the atmosphere to form concentrated solutions called brines. Because liquid water is so essential to life, NASA has described their strategy in searching for life on Mars as "follow the water." As a result, perchlorate brines have attracted a lot of attention.
In new research published in the journal Nature Communications, investigators at the College of Biological Sciences studied in the lab how the unique geochemical environment on Mars could shape life in the past or present.
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