Fate of Organic Molecules in the Mars Regolith Under UV Radiation Deduced from the MOMIE Laboratory Experiment

Cyril Szopa (1, 2) , Patrice Coll (3) , Fabien Stalport (3) , Olivier Poch (4) , Maguy Jaber (5) , Jean-François Lambert (6) , Laura Rouquette (3) , Jérôme Lasne (3)

1 PLANETO - LATMOS
2 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
3 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
4 CSH - Center for Space and Habitability
5 LAMS - Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale
6 LRS - Laboratoire de Réactivité de Surface

Among bioindicators or biosigna- tures, organic molecules present on Mars could be re- trieved in the regolith near the surface due to erosion of rocks and gardening of the soil from meteorites bom- bardment through the Mars history. Once their, the organic molecules are submitted to the harsh surface environmental conditions, including UV radiation. In order to evaluate the influence of these radiation on organics, the MOMIE experiment [1] is devoted to expose pure molecules, or mixture of molecules with minerals, to a UV spectrum simulating the one reach- ing the Mars surface. From these experiments, it can be deduced their lifetime and/or their possible transfor- mation into other molecules

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]

Cyril Szopa, Patrice Coll, Fabien Stalport, Olivier Poch, Maguy Jaber, et al.. Fate of Organic Molecules in the Mars Regolith Under UV Radiation Deduced from the MOMIE Laboratory Experiment. Biosignature Preservation and Detection in Mars Analog Environments conference, May 2016, Lake Tahoe, United States. ⟨insu-01337000⟩