P43B-2127
Indigenous Fixed Nitrogen on Mars: Implications for Habitability
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Jennifer C Stern1, Brad Sutter2, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez3, Chris McKay4, Caroline Freissinet5, Doug Archer Jr.2, Jennifer L. Eigenbrode1, Paul R Mahaffy1 and Pamela Gales Conrad1, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Jacobs Technology, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, United States, (3)Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, (4)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Postdoctoral Program, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
Nitrate has been detected in Mars surface sediments and aeolian deposits by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover (Stern et al., 2015). This detection is significant because fixed nitrogen is necessary for life, a requirement that drove the evolution of N-fixing metabolism in life on Earth. The question remains as to the extent to which a primitive N cycle ever developed on Mars, and whether N is currently being deposited on the martian surface at a non-negligible rate. It is also necessary to consider processes that could recycle oxidized N back into the atmosphere, and how these processes may have changed the soil inventory of N over time. The abundance of fixed nitrogen detected as NO from thermal decomposition of nitrate is consistent with both delivery of nitrate via impact generated thermal shock early in martian history and dry deposition from photochemistry of thermospheric NO, occurring in the present. Processes that could recycle N back into the atmosphere may include nitrate reduction by Fe(II) in aqueous environments on early Mars, impact decomposition, and/or UV photolysis. In order to better understand the history of nitrogen fixation on Mars, we look to cycling of N in Mars analog environments on Earth such as the Atacama Desert and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. In particular, we examine the ratio of nitrate to perchlorate (NO3-/ClO4-) in these areas compared to those calculated from data acquired on Mars.
