Curiosity could bring terrestrial microorganisms to Mars

This, of course, about microorganisms, and not about animals and, especially, people. The other day, in the authoritative journal Nature, the results of a study were published, the purpose of which is to find out whether microorganisms could survive the antibacterial processing of the device before sending it to Mars. In addition, scientists have tried to figure out what bacteria could transfer the space trip, and the "landing" on Mars.

An interesting point is that after all the procedures for decontamination of the rover, 65 surviving species of bacteria were found on it. Some species are resistant to low temperatures, and to ultraviolet radiation, and to increased radiation background.
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In general, the probability that terrestrial bacteria will survive on Mars and flourish there is very small. But the background pollution of the soil, samples taken by the rover, may well be. Needless to say, this greatly complicates the task of finding life on the Red Planet, since it is to separate actual results from background pollution by terrestrial bacteria can be difficult.

By the way, despite the fact that the anti-bacterial treatment of the rover, in theory, should destroy any form of life, in practice it was a little different. Earlier it was reported that the developers of the rover did not follow the procedure to the full extent, which resulted in the survival of certain types of microorganisms.

The article states that in the atmosphere of Mars about 377 species of terrestrial bacteria can survive, many of which are resistant to the above factors, such as high / low temperatures and background radiation.

For the current expedition, in principle, contamination of samples is not so bad. But in 2020 it is planned to take samples of rocks from Mars, with their subsequent delivery to Earth. And in this case, any background traces of earthly life on Martian samples - like death, because the whole expedition may be useless.

Via nature