Scientists suggest that despite the harsh conditions on Mars, microbes and organisms can survive on the surface of the Red Planet. A team of astrobiologists from the University of Arkansas carried out a multiple year study by growing microbes in test tubes and replicating Martian conditions under laboratory conditions.

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Since there is an abundance of methane in Martian atmosphere, scientists suggest that space explorers and astronauts visiting Mars can cultivate methanogens or micro organisms that do not need oxygen or photosynthesis to survive like plants. Methanogens can only thrive when they are protected from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Scientists successfully created methanogens using low atmospheric pressure inside test tubes, similar to underground habitats on Mars along with frigid temperatures that are found in the harsh environment of the alien world.

 When the study was completed, the scientists identified four different kinds of micro organisms that managed to survive between three to 21 days on the simulated Mars habitat along with extreme temperatures and conditions.

According to the lead author of the study, Rebecca Mickol of the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, on Earth, methane is produced by past and present living organisms, and this could be possibly the same for Mars. 

The presence of methane on the Red Planet is considered an important clue about past life on Mars that might exist even today since methane is produced by living organisms. Scientists are planning to search for what produces methane, and ultimately life on the alien world.

Meanwhile, scientists have also suggested that methane could also be produced by geological activity such as volcanic eruptions.

These new findings could ultimately spur research into how astronauts can even develop vegetation for food on the surface of Mars during manned missions.

This new study was published in the journal Origins of Life and Evolution of Biosphere.