2024/11/22 by Andrea Butturini, Robert Benaiges-Fernández, Butturini, Andrea +5 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Planetary Science and Exploration #Space Exploration and Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.15064
openalex publication_date 2024/11/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The intense debate about the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere has stimulated the study of methanogens adapted to terrestrial habitats that mimic Martian environments. We examinate the environmental conditions, energy sources and ecology of terrestrial methanogens thriving in deep crystalline fractures, sub-sea hypersaline lakes and subglacial water bodies considered as analogs of a hypothetical habitable Martian subsurface. We combine this information with recent data on the distribution of buried water or ice and radiogenic elements on Mars and with models of the subsurface thermal regime of this planet to identify a 4.3-8.8 km-deep regolith habitat at the mid-latitude location of Acidalia Planitia, that might fit the requirements for hosting putative Martian methanogens analogous to the methanogenic families Methanosarcinaceae and Methanomicrobiaceae.