Project description
Carbonate-rich lakes could hold vital clues to the origin of life
How did life on Earth begin? Did Mars ever host life? Recent research argues that carbonate-rich lakes could have formed the best place for gathering the chemical building blocks of life. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MaPLE project aims to conduct field work, lab simulations, geochemical modelling and analysis of data derived from space missions to study dissolved phosphorus in a terrestrial carbonate-rich lake. This element is essential for organic processes. The results will be compared to data from NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which landed in Jezero Crater in 2021, one of the few places on Mars where carbonates have been identified.
Objective
How did life first emerge on Earth? What type of environments did gather all the ingredients for life to occur? Did Mars ever host life? These challenging questions are the base of the Mars Phosphorus and LifE (MaPLE) project, outlined in this proposal. It emerges from the exciting idea that carbonate-rich lakes might have been terrestrial cradles of life, as very recently proposed, with strong implications for the inception of life on Mars. The MaPLE project is an interdisciplinary research that will be carried out at the Spanish Centre for Astrobiology (CAB), in Madrid. Field work, lab simulations, geochemical modelling and space missions data analysis will be combined to study dissolved phosphorus (P), the key element in all forms of life, in a terrestrial carbonate-rich lake, to approach the environmental conditions required for life on Earth and its applicability on early Mars. Results will be compared to data from the recently launched NASA Mars2020 mission, which will land at the Jezero crater in February 2021, one of the few places on Mars where carbonates have been identified. This makes the MaPLE project extremely timely and novel as it will be the first time that both Martian and terrestrial rocks, where life could have arisen, may be evaluated simultaneously. Results may open a new exciting line of investigation that sets carbonate-rich environments as preferential targets in future planetary missions to other planets or moons. This project will be carried out by F. Cañadas, who bets on a return strategy to Spain after a MSc and PhD in UK. It will bring her an exceptional opportunity to thrive in an exciting scientific environment, ideal to expand her solid geochemical background with complementary methodologies and personal skills. Altogether, the MaPLE project will place her in an extraordinary position to become an independent scientist of high international visibility in the very promising and rapidly growing field of Astrobiology.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
28006 Madrid
Spain