Article: Salt in Mars soil not bad for life

LOS ANGELES -- Traces of a rocket fuel ingredient found in the Martian soil would not necessarily hinder potential life, mission scientists said Tuesday.

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft earlier this month detected the chemical perchlorate, a highly oxidizing salt, in soil samples dug up from near the Martian surface. On Earth, it can be found naturally in the arid Atacama Desert in Chile where some extreme organisms use it as a source of energy.

"We know that microbes can exist quite happily in oxidizing conditions," said Phoenix scientist Richard Quinn of the NASA Ames Research Center. "The story possibly could turn out to be the same for Mars. We don't know yet."

The surprising find comes less ...

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