Mars May Have Microbes Frozen In Its Icy Surfaces
In the lab, researchers recreated the conditions on Mars.
If there is life on Mars (or if there was long ago) it may not lie buried in the planet’s rocky crust. Instead, it might be locked in ice.
That’s the conclusion of a new study by researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State University, who recreated the frigid, irradiated conditions of Mars inside a laboratory.
Their results, published in Astrobiology in September 2025, suggest that amino acids, or even microbes themselves could remain preserved in Martian ice for tens of millions of years.
“Fifty million years is far greater than the expected age for some current surface ice deposits on Mars,”said co-author Christopher House, professor of geosciences at Penn State.
“That means if there are bacteria near the surface of Mars, future missions can find it.”
Mars has two permanent polar ice caps of water ice and some dry ice, and a few patches of ice both on and under the surface.
Author’s summary: Mars may have frozen microbes on its surface.