/channels/taxonomy/term/8437/all en /channels/channels/news/blueprint-life-forms-mars-339976 <p>The extremely salty, very cold, and almost oxygen-free environment under the permafrost of Lost Hammer Spring in Canada’s High Arctic is the one that most closely resembles certain areas on Mars. So, if you want to learn more about the kinds of life forms that could once have existed – or may still exist – on Mars, this is a good place to look. After much searching under extremely difficult conditions, ƻ����Ժ researchers have found microbes that have never been identified before.</p> Tue, 21 Jun 2022 13:02:18 +0000 webfull 180639 at /channels /channels/channels/event/virtual-seminar-driving-curiosity-exploring-martian-geology-and-habitability-through-mineralogy-333783 <h2 style="text-align:center">Join Earth and Planetary Sciences virtually for our Friday seminar featuring the MSA distinguished lecturer</h2> <h3><strong>Shaunna M. Morrison</strong><br /></h3> Wed, 29 Sep 2021 18:13:44 +0000 webfull 173553 at /channels /channels/channels/news/experts-mars-2020s-perseverance-landing-jezero-crater-328690 <p>NASA’s science rover <em>Perseverance</em>, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday, February 18 and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. (<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/world/space-how-to-watch-nasa-mars-rover-perseverance-landing" target="_blank">National Post</a>)<br /><br /> Here are some experts from ƻ����Ժ that can provide comment on this issue:<br /></p> Fri, 19 Feb 2021 21:35:25 +0000 webfull 168365 at /channels /channels/channels/news/experts-radar-evidence-liquid-water-mars-288186 <p>"A Mars orbiter has detected a wide lake of liquid water hidden below the planet’s southern ice sheets. There have been much-debated hints of tiny, ephemeral amounts of water on Mars before. But if confirmed, this lake marks the first discovery of a long-lasting cache of the liquid." (<a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mars-may-have-lake-liquid-water-search-life">Science News</a>)</p> Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:04:03 +0000 webfull 139124 at /channels /channels/channels/news/ctv-search-life-mars-begins-mcgills-macdonald-campus-285383 <p>“There are some indications that Mars, many billions of years ago, was much warmer – and much wetter,” explained Lyle White, a ƻ����Ժ professor. “Where it would have been an environment that we can envision it would have hosted life as we know on Earth.”<br /><a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/the-search-for-life-on-mars-begins-at-mcgill-s-macdonald-campus-1.3818546">CTV News</a></p> Mon, 26 Feb 2018 17:58:36 +0000 webfull 135775 at /channels /channels/channels/news/new-technique-finding-life-mars-284060 <p>Researchers demonstrate for the first time the potential of existing technology to directly detect and characterize life on Mars and other planets. The study, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, used miniaturized scientific instruments and new microbiology techniques to identify and examine microorganisms in the Canadian high Arctic - one of the closest analogs to Mars on Earth. By avoiding delays that come with having to return samples to a laboratory for analysis, the methodology could also be used on Earth to detect and identify pathogens during epidemics in remote areas.</p> Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:15:07 +0000 webfull 134307 at /channels /channels/channels/news/new-technique-finding-life-mars-284005 <p>Researchers demonstrate for the first time the potential of existing technology to directly detect and characterize life on Mars and other planets. The study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02594/full?utm_source=G-BLO&utm_medium=WEXT&utm_campaign=ECO_FMICB_20180119_mars">Frontiers in Microbiology</a>, used miniaturized scientific instruments and  new microbiology techniques to identify and examine microorganisms in the Canadian high Arctic — one of the closest analogs to Mars on Earth.</p> Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:16:01 +0000 webfull 134246 at /channels /channels/event/postcards-mars-using-rovers-search-evidence-life-red-planet-1500-254091 <h2>Are we alone? Searching for life out there</h2> Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:11:30 +0000 webfull 111277 at /channels /channels/news/exomars-outbound-search-life-signs-259829 <p> </p> <p>Professor Lyle White, Natural Resource Sciences, is interviewed on his role in Mars exploration and the Exomars Space Probe.</p> <p><a href="https://audioboom.com/boos/4323213-exomars-outbound-in-search-for-life-signs-david-livingston-spaceshow-com-lyle-white-mcgill-university" target="_blank">Listen to the interview</a></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> Tue, 22 Mar 2016 13:40:52 +0000 webfull 117534 at /channels /channels/event/postcards-mars-using-rovers-search-evidence-life-red-planet-800-254092 <h2>Are we alone? Searching for life out there</h2> Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:12:21 +0000 webfull 111278 at /channels /channels/news/bacterium-canadian-high-arctic-offers-clues-pos-226842 <p>The temperature in the permafrost on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic is nearly as cold as that of the surface of Mars. So the recent discovery by a ƻ����Ժ led team of scientists of a bacterium that is able to thrive at –15ºC, the coldest temperature ever reported for bacterial growth, is exciting.  The bacterium offers clues about some of the necessary preconditions for microbial life on both the Saturn moon Enceladus and Mars, where similar briny subzero conditions are thought to exist. Wed, 22 May 2013 16:16:43 +0000 webfull 96768 at /channels /channels/news/water-mars-nasa-announcement-255675 <p> Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:22:42 +0000 webfull 112834 at /channels /channels/news/mars-too-has-macroweather-240080 <p>Weather, which changes day-to-day due to constant fluctuations in the atmosphere, and climate, which varies over decades, are familiar. More recently, a third regime, called “macroweather,” has been used to describe the relatively stable regime between weather and climate. Thu, 13 Nov 2014 14:53:36 +0000 webfull 106501 at /channels /channels/news/nearing-limits-life-earth-257865 <p><em><strong>By Katherine Gombay, </strong><strong><a href="//www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/">ƻ����Ժ Newsroom</a></strong></em></p> <p><em>Failure to find active microbes in coldest Antarctic soils has implications for search for life on Mars</em></p> Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:27:40 +0000 webfull 115267 at /channels /channels/event/postcards-mars-using-rovers-search-evidence-life-red-planet-254089 <h2>Are we alone? Searching for life out there</h2> Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:08:56 +0000 webfull 111275 at /channels