Instead of thermal heat, MOMA will use a laser to separate the largest organic compounds from the minerals to which they were originally bound. Then these gas phase chemical samples will undergo onboard analysis to determine if they look promising for biology in both their makeup and their distribution. To do so, MOMA will either use heat or ultraviolet laser pulses to convert chemical species in the samples into a gas phase. Mass spectrometers measure the chemical makeup and mass of given substances in gaseous states. MOMA must first vaporize the compounds it collects so they can be detected by the instrument’s mass spectrometer. Dig a foot and a half below the surface and the temperature is minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit it's a wonderful freezer, he says. Once Mars lost its surface water, it turned very cold, says Vago. The ensuing cold temperatures beneath the surface would also have aided in their preservation. Once Mars lost its water and dried out, these microbial colonies would have turned into microfossils preserved by this sedimentary ash. Because Mars is thought to have been very volcanically active at the time, ash from its volcanoes would have fallen on its ocean’s surface. Some four billion years ago, it’s likely there were microbial colonies living in some sort of hydrothermal system beneath the surface of Oxia Planum.
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