Astrobiology Biosignatures Buck Reef Chert Mars Mars 2020 Microbial mats

Journal

Astrobiology
ISSN: 1557-8070
Titre abrégé: Astrobiology
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101088083

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
09 2022
Historique:
pubmed: 22 7 2022
medline: 11 9 2022
entrez: 21 7 2022
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

The NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is currently exploring Jezero crater, a Noachian-Hesperian locality that once hosted a delta-lake system with high habitability and biosignature preservation potential. Perseverance conducts detailed appraisals of rock targets using a synergistic payload capable of geological characterization from kilometer to micron scales. The highest-resolution textural and chemical information will be provided by correlated WATSON (imaging), SHERLOC (deep-UV Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy), and PIXL (X-ray lithochemistry) analyses, enabling the distributions of organic and mineral phases within rock targets to be comprehensively established. Herein, we analyze Paleoarchean microbial mats from the ∼3.42 Ga Buck Reef Chert (Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa)-considered astrobiological analogues for a putative ancient martian biosphere-following a WATSON-SHERLOC-PIXL protocol identical to that conducted by Perseverance on Mars during all sampling activities. Correlating deep-UV Raman and fluorescence spectroscopic mapping with X-ray elemental mapping, we show that the Perseverance payload has the capability to detect thermally and texturally mature organic materials of biogenic origin and can highlight organic-mineral interrelationships and elemental colocation at fine spatial scales. We also show that the Perseverance protocol obtains very similar results to high-performance laboratory imaging, Raman spectroscopy, and μXRF instruments. This is encouraging for the prospect of detecting microscale organic-bearing textural biosignatures on Mars using the correlative micro-analytical approach enabled by WATSON, SHERLOC, and PIXL; indeed, laminated, organic-bearing samples such as those studied herein are considered plausible analogues of biosignatures from a potential Noachian-Hesperian biosphere. Were similar materials discovered at Jezero crater, they would offer opportunities to reconstruct aspects of the early martian carbon cycle and search for potential fossilized traces of life in ancient paleoenvironments. Such samples should be prioritized for caching and eventual return to Earth.

Identifiants

pubmed: 35862422
doi: 10.1089/ast.2022.0018
pmc: PMC9508457
doi:

Substances chimiques

Minerals 0

Types de publication

Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

1143-1163

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Auteurs

Keyron Hickman-Lewis (K)

Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

Kelsey R Moore (KR)

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA.
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.

Joseph J Razzell Hollis (JJR)

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA.

Michael L Tuite (ML)

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA.

Luther W Beegle (LW)

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA.

Rohit Bhartia (R)

Photon Systems Inc., Covina, California, USA.

John P Grotzinger (JP)

Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.

Adrian J Brown (AJ)

Plancius Research, Severna Park, Maryland, USA.

Svetlana Shkolyar (S)

Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.

Barbara Cavalazzi (B)

Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Caroline L Smith (CL)

Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.

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