Martian Soil Is Deadly. And That's Why It Might Support Life.

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The tardigrade—capable of surviving extreme drying, freezing, heat, radiation, the vacuum of space, maybe even the asteroid impact. Who knows, maybe some have hitchhiked on impact ejecta to Mars. And according to a new study, the tardigrade can survive most of the ravages of the Martian surface. Most. When the researchers added a chemical that’s both abundant on Mars and horrifically toxic, even the tardigrade wound down. So if Earth’s most intrepid extremophile can’t handle the hostility of the red planet, can anything? Maybe, yes, even today. Let’s see where Martian life and tardigrade astronauts may still be hiding.

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