We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part IV - Astrobiological Targets
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2024
Mars has always been one of the most promising targets in the search for current or extinct extraterrestrial life. The chapter commences with a brief summary of Mars’ basic characteristics, before describing its potential for instantaneous habitability (e.g., energy sources, bioessential elements), with an emphasis on the availability of water. This is followed by an exposition of how several aspects of Martian habitability have diminished over time, ranging from extensive atmospheric loss to the shutdown of its dynamo, both of which might have contributed to the emergence of its cold and arid climate today. Nevertheless, some specialised abodes where life may have persisted are touched upon (e.g., deep subsurface). In the last part of the chapter, the contentious history of life detection on Mars – the Viking mission experiments in the 1970s and the meteorite ALH84001 – is reviewed, and forthcoming missions to Mars are surveyed.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
