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Mars Phosphorus and LifE

Description du projet

Les lacs riches en carbonates pourraient détenir des indices essentiels sur l’origine de la vie

Comment la vie a-t-elle commencé sur Terre? Mars a-t-elle déjà accueilli la vie? Des recherches récentes soutiennent que les lacs riches en carbonates pourraient avoir constitué le meilleur endroit pour rassembler les éléments chimiques constitutifs de la vie. Financé par le programme d’actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie, le projet MaPLE entend mener des travaux de terrain, des simulations en laboratoire, des modélisations géochimiques et des analyses de données issues de missions spatiales pour étudier le phosphore dissous dans un lac terrestre riche en carbonates. Cet élément est essentiel aux processus organiques. Les résultats seront comparés aux données du rover Perseverance de la mission Mars 2020 de la NASA, qui s’est posé en 2021 dans le cratère Jezero, l’un des rares endroits sur Mars où des carbonates ont été identifiés.

Objectif

How did life first emerge on Earth? What type of environments did gather all the ingredients for life to occur? Did Mars ever host life? These challenging questions are the base of the Mars Phosphorus and LifE (MaPLE) project, outlined in this proposal. It emerges from the exciting idea that carbonate-rich lakes might have been terrestrial cradles of life, as very recently proposed, with strong implications for the inception of life on Mars. The MaPLE project is an interdisciplinary research that will be carried out at the Spanish Centre for Astrobiology (CAB), in Madrid. Field work, lab simulations, geochemical modelling and space missions data analysis will be combined to study dissolved phosphorus (P), the key element in all forms of life, in a terrestrial carbonate-rich lake, to approach the environmental conditions required for life on Earth and its applicability on early Mars. Results will be compared to data from the recently launched NASA Mars2020 mission, which will land at the Jezero crater in February 2021, one of the few places on Mars where carbonates have been identified. This makes the MaPLE project extremely timely and novel as it will be the first time that both Martian and terrestrial rocks, where life could have arisen, may be evaluated simultaneously. Results may open a new exciting line of investigation that sets carbonate-rich environments as preferential targets in future planetary missions to other planets or moons. This project will be carried out by F. Cañadas, who bets on a return strategy to Spain after a MSc and PhD in UK. It will bring her an exceptional opportunity to thrive in an exciting scientific environment, ideal to expand her solid geochemical background with complementary methodologies and personal skills. Altogether, the MaPLE project will place her in an extraordinary position to become an independent scientist of high international visibility in the very promising and rapidly growing field of Astrobiology.

Coordinateur

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 172 932,48
Adresse
CALLE SERRANO 117
28006 Madrid
Espagne

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Région
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Type d’activité
Research Organisations
Liens
Coût total
€ 172 932,48