Martian dust storms toxic to life
AUG 01, 2006
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.020313
Space.com : Small dust devils and planet-wide storms - combined with static electricity - may lead to the formation of hydrogen peroxide and other corrosive chemicals that fall to the Martian surface as a sort of toxic snow, say two papers recently published in Astrobiology . The presence of hydrogen peroxide or ozone in the Mars dirt could also explain why some of the instruments looking for life on the 1976 Viking lander obtained ambiguous results. space.com article Paper 1: Oxidant Enhancement in Martian Dust Devils and Storms: Implications for Life and Habitability Paper 2: Oxidant Enhancement in Martian Dust Devils and Storms: Storm Electric Fields and Electron Dissociative Attachment
© 2006 American Institute of Physics
