Nathalie Cabrol: How Mars might hold the secret to the origin of life
Nathalie Cabrol: Prečo môže Mars ukrývať tajomstvo pôvodu života
To determine how life might persist on Mars, Nathalie Cabrol explores one of Earth’s most extreme environments: high-elevation Andean lakes and deserts. Full bio
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in the smallest packages.
sa vás budem snažiť presvedčiť,
in the 15 minutes I have,
about questions such as,
zodpovedať otázky ako napríklad:
not only life in our solar system
nielen o živote v Slnečnej sústave,
na tých najnemožnejších miestach na Zemi,
in the most impossible places on Earth,
to the brink of survival.
when I'm trying to follow them too close.
v Slnečnej sústave, neznamená to,
in the solar system,
neexistuje mikrobiálny život.
no microbial life nearby.
and moons you see here
and we know that,
on those moons and planets,
vďaka revolúcii v tom,
because there has been a revolution
of what a habitable planet is,
water can stay stable,
horizontálnej dimenzie obývateľnosti
definition of habitability,
dimension to habitability,
v oblastiach pod povrchom planéty,
where you are very far away from a sun,
ale stále majú vodu, energiu a živiny,
energy, nutrients,
deep in the ocean,
kde nepreniknú slnečné lúče,
využíva len chémiu.
for life processes.
zmiznú všetky zábrany.
at that point, all walls collapse.
at the headlines lately,
discovered a subsurface ocean
on Enceladus, on Titan,
a horúce pramene na Encelade.
and hot springs on Enceladus,
into a giant spa.
ako veľmi sa tam mikróbom páči, však?
knows how much microbes like that, right?
at the surface of Mars today,
in our understanding of habitability,
ako vnímame obývateľnosť,
in our understanding
of life are on Earth.
organic molecules,
medzi baktériami a kameňmi,
between bacteria and rocks,
gases in the atmosphere.
tiny green algae
sú priami potomkovia rias,
of those who have been pumping oxygen
pumpovali do atmosféry Zeme kyslík.
in the atmosphere of the Earth.
90 percent of the life
prečo je pre nás dnes vzduch dýchateľný.
you are breathing this air today.
že týmto veciam čoraz lepšie rozumieme,
of all of these things,
we still cannot answer,
to find the physical evidence
nášho pôvodu na tejto planéte,
on this planet,
is older than four billion years is gone.
ako 4 miliardy rokov je preč.
pohybom tektonických platní a eróziou.
biological horizon.
where we are coming from.
evidence of our own origin
and this place in Mars.
of the solar system,
bombardovali Mars a Zem
by giant asteroids and comets,
dookola lietala vyvrhnutá hmota.
from these impacts all over the place.
at each other for a very long time.
„hádzali skalami.“
been seeded by the same material.
mohol „zasiať“ ten istý materiál.
sedí „náš dedko“ a čaká na nás.
there on the surface and waiting for us.
nájsť stopy nášho pôvodu.
and try to find traces of our own origin.
at the time when conditions were right.
v správnom čase za správnych podmienok.
všetky potvrdzujú to isté.
telling us exactly the same thing today.
appeared on the Earth,
ale aj delty riek,
it had volcanoes, it had lakes,
picture you see here.
poslala sonda Curiosity.
rover only a few weeks ago.
vďaka čomu vieme povedať,
and this picture tells us something:
for a very long time.
to actually happen.
life will be easy to find on Mars?
at the surface of the Earth,
stripped away by solar winds,
kozmické lúče a UV žiarenie
bombarded the surface
and went underground.
alebo zmizla pod zemou.
of the signatures of life
the impact of each of these events
na zachovanie záznamov života Marsu.
kde máme hľadať skryté stopy života.
to know where those signatures are hiding,
to send our rover to the right places
poslať sondy na správne miesta,
that may be telling us something
niečo dôležité o tom, kto sme.
that somewhere, independently,
sa nezávisle od nás objavil život.
3.5 billion years ago
do minulosti planéty.
do minulosti našej planéty.
to go back in the past of our own planet.
in very extreme environments
s extrémnymi podmienkami,
to those of Mars
podmienkam na Marse v čase,
to understand what happened.
I'm going to take you with me
na cestu týmto strojom času.
vo výške 4500 metrov nad morom,
we are at 4,500 meters in the Andes,
years after the Earth and Mars formed.
po sformovaní Zeme a Marsu.
pretty much exactly like that --
evaporating lakes everywhere,
z ktorých sa vyparuje voda,
on the shore of those lakes?
of the first organisms
musíme zájsť ešte ďalej.
going on, we need to go a little further.
pred 3,5 miliardami rokov spoločné aj to,
three and a half billion years ago,
and water and ice are disappearing.
when everything changed on Mars,
do času veľkých zmien na Marse,
it's getting more unstable,
and you have a lot more U.V. radiation.
a tým silnejšie UV žiarenie.
on Mars when everything changed.
keď sa tam všetko zmenilo.
a leisurely trip on the time machine.
in that time machine.
of equipment to the summit
in the Andes here.
na vrchol tejto sopky v Andách.
so sklonom 42 stupňov
on 42-degree slopes
be any earthquake that night.
ktoré sme hľadali.
we actually find the lake we came for.
experiencing exactly the same conditions
ako na Marse pred 3,5 miliardami rokov.
three and a half billion years ago.
our mountain gear
at the very moment we enter that lake,
do minulosti inej planéty.
in the past of another planet,
the answer came for.
is a living organism.
ale všetko ostatné áno.
but everything else.
a vinou klimatických zmien,
right now and due to climate change,
v týchto jazerách tvoria len 3 druhy.
were composed of three species,
ktoré prežili až doposiaľ.
that have survived so far.
right next to the first one.
is not due to minerals.
of a tiny algae.
nebezpečné UV žiarenie.
is really nasty.
považujeme UV index 11.
is considered to be extreme.
the U.V. Index reaches 43.
to you over there,
transparent in those lakes
nowhere to hide, really,
their own sunscreen,
is gone from the surface,
you see in that slide here,
ktoré vidíte na obrázku,
living inside rocks
of the translucence of the rocks
actually damage their DNA.
for life on Mars in these areas,
existoval život,
three and a half billion years ago,
to actually protect itself.
použiť presne takéto stratégie.
nám veľmi pomáhajú,
is helping us very much
a prípravy misií.
and to prepare missions.
the geology of Mars.
v minulosti Marsu a ich vývoj,
climate of Mars and its evolution,
has discovered traces of organics.
stopy organického materiálu.
at the surface of Mars.
if the methane in question
geológia alebo biológia.
that because of the discovery,
ostáva aj dnes použiteľná hypotéza,
life present on Mars today
že Mars je veľmi výnimočný.
that Mars is very special to us,
that Mars is the only place
že je to jediné miesto,
to find potential microbial life.
potenciálneho mikrobiálneho života.
môžu mať spoločné korene.
Mars and the Earth
to their tree of life,
it's not that easy.
výmenu materiálu medzi planétami.
is not making it so easy
of material between planets,
life on those planets,
existovať veľa stromov života.
in the solar system.
but I can tell you something:
na tom „magickom čísle“.
no matter what that magic number is,
to measure the life potential,
mimo Slnečnej sústavy.
beyond our own solar system.
by our generation.
but only if we dare to explore.
ak si na to trúfneme.
môžete ľuďom dokázať, že sa mýlia,
for alien microbes is not cool
a philosophical conversation with them,
nie je žiadna senzácia,
you can tell them they're wrong.
viesť filozofické diskusie.
is going to tell you
and about diversity.
komplexnosti a rozmanitosti.
is going to tell you about adaptation,
nám môže povedať
prežití, planetárnych zmenách
about planetary changes
as a microbial pathway
and look at the Earth.
inteligentných druhov,
intelligent species,
technologické štádium vývoja.
of our own solar system,
odkrýva intenzívne posolstvo,
pri hľadaní mimozemského života,
for alien life, small and big.
and we are listening,
a mesiac za mesiacom
and one moon at a time,
niekde tam vonku.
o rozmanitosti a hojnosti života,
abundance of life,
how this life has survived thus far
technológiu a vskutku aj filozofiu.
and, indeed, philosophy.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nathalie Cabrol - Planetary explorerTo determine how life might persist on Mars, Nathalie Cabrol explores one of Earth’s most extreme environments: high-elevation Andean lakes and deserts.
Why you should listen
While hunting for life in the fragile biomes of the Andes, Nathalie Cabrol has braved earthquakes, set a diving record and gathered data on the threats faced by mountain ecosystems in the face of climate change.
But Cabrol’s eyes are always fixed on Mars, which may have once had a climate similar to Earth’s mountain deserts. As a science team member for NASA, Cabrol helps design interplanetary experiments for the Martian Spirit rover, and researches new technologies for future missions to Mars and beyond.
Nathalie Cabrol | Speaker | TED.com