Title : Canadian researcher's device could detect life on Mars, moons
link : Canadian researcher's device could detect life on Mars, moons
Canadian researcher's device could detect life on Mars, moons
A Canadian microbiologist has helped create a tool that could one day detect life on Mars or the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
McGill University’s Lyle Whyte told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday that the bio-signature detection device has already been tested in the Canadian Arctic with great success.
The device, which Lyle showed off on the show, fits in the palm of one’s hand and can be used to detect nucleic acids like DNA and RNA.
“That’s very important,” Lyle said. “If you find nucleic acids in any kind of soil or sediments or ice, let’s say on (Jupiter’s moon) Europa, this is a very strong indication that you’ve just discovered life on another world.”
Lyle said researchers envision loading the tool on a lander sent to Mars, Europa or Saturn’s Enceladus and taking a sample of soil or ice.
If researchers detect DNA, they could sequence it and potentially learn “a little bit about the life that might exist there.”
Lyle says the device was tested last at the McGill Arctic Research Station, about 900 km south of the North Pole, where the environment is similar to that on Mars.
Mars is about 50 per cent farther from the Sun than Earth, so it’s much colder there, – 63 C on average versus on average versus 15 C on Earth, according to NASA.
NASA has a list of past and future Mars missions listed on its website.
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