And so the search for the life on Mars continues...in Norway.An international team of scientist called the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition(AMASE)has been very busy designing devices and techniques to find life on Mars.

Recently,the team decided to test their life-detection equipment in a place that it believes is vewry siminar to Mars in geology:a frozen volcano in Svalbard,Norway.What the team's instruments found inside the volcano was a rare and highly complex microbial community in blue ice vents.

The team was greatly encouraged by its finding for a number of reasons.First,it believes that Mars alsohas ice-filled volcanic vents just like the one in Svalbard,and these vents may also harbor life.In fact,some scientists surmise that life on the Earth may have begun in and around volcano.

Second,both the living and fossillezed organisms that the team found in the ice vents are exactly the kind of evidence of life they will be searching for on Mars.Ergo,if such organisms are present in a Mars-like environment on Earth,what are the chances of finding such organisms on Mars itself?

Connecting the Dots

What do frozen microbes inside a frigid volcano in the Arctic Circle have to do with life on Mars?

Well,nitrogen is essential to life.Hence,traces of it,even the minutest amounts,may be evidence of life.The AMASE scientists studied how a certain tyoe of nitrogen was distributed in soils,water,rocks,plants,and microbes.

In Svalbard's case,the scientists found that microbes and fossils left nitrogen fingerprints embedded in he volcano's ice as well as on he cracks and surfaces of rocks.The actual amount varied,depending on how nitrogen interacted with the environment and living organisms.

So if nitrogen is evidence of life and microbes in a Mars-like environment leave nitrogen fingerprints on rocks,then finding such microbes on Mars would mean that Mars once harbored(or still does harbor,as the case may be)life.

When Sterile Is Good

Instrument sterility is a serious concern in this study,as it should be.Imagine how embarrassing it would be for the team if microorganisms from Earth hitched a ride on the life-detection instruments and get"discovered"on Mars.

To ensure that the equipment would actually detect Martian,and notEarth microbes,tha AMASE team fitted a miniaturized version of the equipment with:Several successful tests proved that the team was able to "maintain sterile smapling procedures without introducing contamination from humans."

This means that the microbes the scientists found embedded in the ice are really survivors that have successfully adapted to the extrmely cold condition.

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