This Is One of the Conditions Where Alien Life Could Survive on the Martian Surface

The same mechanism that gives Mars its cliffs and canyons could also give it subsurface life.

Transcript

00:00 When picturing alien life on Mars, what comes to mind is likely bacteria or simple organisms

00:08 clinging to life on the surface of the Red Planet.

00:10 But now experts are saying that a better place to look for it might be under the Martian

00:14 surface.

00:15 According to researchers for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, or

00:19 SETI in California, there's ice that is melting under the Martian surface.

00:23 But how do we know that and why is it important?

00:25 Well the researchers believe that subsurface ice is melting and mixing with permafrost,

00:29 creating unstable terrain that's causing landslides.

00:32 Those landslides, which the researchers say can travel at around 225 miles per hour, are

00:37 thought to be the reason for the trenches and cliffs on the Red Planet.

00:40 And we can see those.

00:41 And of course water is crucial for the survival of life, meaning water under the surface could

00:45 mean life is down there as well.

00:47 In an environment some say might be much like that of Antarctica, so how does ice melt on

00:51 Sub-Zero Mars?

00:52 The answer is salts.

00:54 In a lab, researchers recreated Martian temperatures and conducted a study on regolith-like substances

00:58 made of chlorine, salt, and sulfates, finding that a slushy water mixture could be produced

01:03 even in temperatures of down to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

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