Martian groundwater may contain enough oxygen to support aerobic life, including simple microorganisms such as sponges. The discovery also explains why Mars flushed.

It’s not that our findings prove the existence of life on the Red Planet, but they increase the chances of its discovery and show that it can be much more complicated than previously thought.

We see more complex life forms appearing at that time.

-Vlada Stamenkovich, a planetologist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and lead author

On Earth, oxygen was a very powerful stimulus for evolution. The atmosphere of our planet was enriched by them about 2.35 billion years ago in an event known as the “Great Oxidation”, during which photosynthetic bacteria released large amounts of this gas to the atmosphere that was poor in oxygen.

The problem is that the oxygen concentration in the Martian atmosphere is only 0.145%, while on Earth it is 21%. In addition, the atmosphere of Mars is much less dense than that of our planet, so oxygen is a rare gas for it.

But despite this, the climate model has shown that under conditions of temperature and pressure, which are fixed near the surface of Mars, a significant amount of oxygen can be dissolved in the groundwater, much more than is necessary to maintain aerobic life.

Salt Martian waters can easily get oxygen even from the weak atmosphere of the Red Planet. This process works best at low temperatures, such as near the Martian poles, as well as in the lowlands, where the pressure can be three times higher than in mountainous regions.

-Vlada Stamenkovich

The discovery, according to researchers, gives a better understanding of where future missions should go to test the theory and, possibly, find signs of life on Mars.
Not so simple

However, not all planetologists are so optimistic:

There are many other requirements for aerobic life besides oxygen. For example, you need a source of organic carbon, warm enough and not very salty water, otherwise it will act as a preservative, not a medium for life.

-David Catling from the University of Washington (USA)

And although salt in Martian subsurface reservoirs can significantly reduce the freezing point of water, life, as we know it, requires temperatures that are not absurdly cold. Microbes on Earth cease to reproduce below minus 15 degrees Celsius.

The authors agree with these fears, but do not consider them insurmountable. It is possible that life on Mars can flourish in warmer areas under cold oxygen-containing brines, using them as a source of necessary gas, but not being in an aggressive environment.

Whatever the case with life, the study may have answered one of the most long-standing questions of the solar system: why is Mars red? Scientists know that its rusty color is associated with the presence of large amounts of iron oxide and manganese oxide in Martian rocks, discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover, and this requires the presence of significant amounts of dissolved oxygen in the groundwater.

Attempting to explain where this oxygen came from, in fact, was one of the research impulses.

It looks like the saline water with dissolved oxygen helped the surface of Mars to” rust “and explain why for thousands of years people see it as a wandering red star.

-David Catling

There is enough oxygen in Martian subsurface reservoirs for the prosperity of life
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