The moons of Mars are most likely to provide evidence of traces of ancient life on Mars, according to experts from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA).
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In his study, Hjodo Rjuki and Usui Tomohiro take a look at current efforts to study the red planet over the next ten years, according to the Phys.org science-educational news portal.
These include collecting rock samples from the U.S. Space Agency’s (NASA) Perseverance Martian in the Lake Crater. NASA also plans to send a spacecraft to Mars in the 2030s to transport the samples to Earth.
And Japan wants to send spacecraft to both moons of Mars before the end of the decade and bring them back to Earth with samples.
According to Hyodo and Usui, both moons of the red planet – Phobos and Deimos – are smaller than the moon of the Earth and are much closer to Mars than the Moon is to our planet.
In their article in the scientific journal Science, the researchers explain that space probes sent to study the surface of Mars can only study a very small area. As they wrote, it is as if a spacecraft is landing in the middle of the Sahara: it would find clues to life, but only a fraction of reality.
Experts, on the other hand, say a spacecraft exploring the moons of Mars would probably be more fortunate.
As recalled, the results of previous research suggested that Mars may once have been a wet planet.
Previous studies have also shown that plenty of asteroids have struck Mars over millions of years. In the wake of some major collisions, pieces of the Martian surface were ejected into space, one such piece even identified on Earth.
According to Japanese experts, some of the “dropped” pieces on the Martian surface may no doubt have landed on the surface of one or even both moons on the planet, and since both moons have an almost completely sterile environment, they may have preserved traces of ancient life.
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