News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A new study in the world’s driest desert suggests that there could be life lurking in the soils of Mars.

Researchers from Washington State University have seen life rebounding in South America’s Atacama Desert, where decades pass without any rain.

This desert is thought to have very similar conditions to the Martian surface, indicating that life could also rebound on Mars.

In the study, the researchers found that specialised bacteria could live in the soil, going dormant when water wasn’t present, and reacting when it rained.

(Image: Dirk Schulze-Makuch)

Professor Dirk Schulze-Makuch, who led the study, said: “It has always fascinated me to go to the places where people don't think anything could possibly survive and discover that life has somehow found a way to make it work,.

“Jurassic Park references aside, our research tell us that if life can persist in Earth's driest environment there is a good chance it could be hanging in there on Mars in a similar fashion."

The researchers first went to the Atacama desert in 2015, and detected an explosion of biological activity in the soil following a rare rain shower.

(Image: Dirk Schulze-Makuch)

When they returned in 2016 and 2017, the researchers found that the same microbes were reverting to a dormant state as the moisture went away.

Professor Schulze-Makuch said: “In the past researchers have found dying organisms near the surface and remnants of DNA but this is really the first time that anyone has been able to identify a persistent form of life living in the soil of the Atacama Desert.

“We believe these microbial communities can lay dormant for hundreds or even thousands of years in conditions very similar to what you would find on a planet like Mars and then come back to life when it rains."

In terms of how this relates to Mars, Professor Schulze-Makuch added: "We know there is water frozen in the Martian soil and recent research strongly suggests nightly snowfalls and other increased moisture events near the surface.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

“If life ever evolved on Mars, our research suggests it could have found a subsurface niche beneath today's severely hyper-arid surface.”

The researchers now plan to study the microbes in the Atacama Desert further, as well as look for lifeforms in Antarctica’s Don Juan Pond - a shallow lake that is so salty it remains liquid even at temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit.

Professor Schulze-Makuch added: “There are only a few places left on Earth to go looking for new lifeforms that survive in the kind of environments you would find on Mars.

”Our goal is to understand how they are able to do it so we will know what to look for on the Martian surface."