NASA: Ancient Life May Survive 50M Years in Mars Ice

Researchers find amino acids from E. coli can endure extreme conditions in pure Martian ice.

Feb. 26, 2026 at 2:51am

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Future missions to Mars may want to focus on digging into ice deposits rather than rock, as scientists say ancient microbes or traces of them could be preserved for tens of millions of years in Martian ice. Researchers from NASA Goddard and Penn State recreated Mars-like conditions in the lab and found that pieces of amino acids from E. coli bacteria could survive more than 50 million years trapped in Martian permafrost or ice caps, even under constant cosmic radiation.

Why it matters

The findings suggest that missions searching for life on Mars should prioritize exploring pure ice or ice-rich permafrost, as any organic life present would be better preserved compared to samples mixed with Martian sediment. This could have implications for future exploration of icy moons like Europa and Enceladus as well.

The details

The study sealed E. coli bacteria inside test tubes filled with pure water ice, as well as samples combined with materials commonly found in Martian sediment. The frozen samples were then exposed to radiation equivalent to 20 million years of cosmic ray bombardment on the Martian surface. In pure water ice, more than 10% of the amino acids survived the full 50 million year simulation, while samples mixed with Mars-like sediment broke down 10 times faster.

  • The study was published in Astrobiology in 2026.
  • A previous 2022 study by the same team had shown that amino acids preserved in a mixture of 10% water ice and 90% Martian soil were destroyed more quickly than samples containing only sediment.

The players

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The NASA center that led the research on preserving ancient life in Martian ice.

Penn State

The university that collaborated with NASA Goddard on the study and provided the radiation testing facilities.

Alexander Pavlov

A space scientist at NASA Goddard who completed his doctorate in geosciences at Penn State and led the study.

Christopher House

A professor of geosciences, affiliate of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Earth and Environment Systems Institute, and director of the Penn State Consortium for Planetary and Exoplanetary Science and Technology.

Europa Clipper

A NASA mission that will study the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean, launching in 2024 and arriving at Jupiter in 2030.

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What they’re saying

“Fifty million years is far greater than the expected age for some current surface ice deposits on Mars, which are often less than two million years old, meaning any organic life present within the ice would be preserved.”

— Christopher House, Professor of Geosciences, Penn State

“While in solid ice, harmful particles created by radiation get frozen in place and may not be able to reach organic compounds. These results suggest that pure ice or ice-dominated regions are an ideal place to look for recent biological material on Mars.”

— Alexander Pavlov, Space Scientist, NASA Goddard

What’s next

The findings from this study will help inform the priorities and exploration strategies for future Mars missions, which may want to focus more on accessing and analyzing buried ice deposits rather than just surface rock and soil samples.

The takeaway

This research demonstrates the remarkable resilience of organic molecules like amino acids when trapped in pure ice, even under the harsh conditions of the Martian surface. It suggests that if ancient microbial life did exist on Mars, its traces may still be preserved in the planet's subsurface ice deposits, making them a prime target for future life-detection missions.