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Laser-powered device tested on Earth could help detect microbial fossils on Mars

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Summary
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90% Informative

Mass spectrometer can detect fossils of microbes in gypsum samples that are a close analogy to sulfate rocks on Mars .

Gypsum and other sulfates formed when pools evaporated, leaving behind minerals that precipitated out of the water and potentially fossilizing any organic life left behind.

This means that if microbes such as bacteria lived there, traces of their presence could be preserved as fossils.

More information: The search for ancient life on Mars using morphological and mass spectrometric analysis: an analog study in detecting microfossils in Messinian gypsum, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences ( 2025 ). DOI: 10.3389 /fspas.2025.1503042 Provided by Frontiers.

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94

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97

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53

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informal

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English

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74

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Time-value

long-living

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