Protective effects of halite to vacuum and VUV: A potential scenario during a young sun superflare

ABREVAYA XIMENA; GALANTE D.; TRIBELLI, P.M; OPPEZZO, O. J., ; NÓBREGA, F. ; ARAUJO, G.G; RODRIGUES, F., ; ODERT, P., ; LEITZINGER, M., ; RICARDI, M.; ; VARELA, MARIA E.; GALLO, T., ; SANZ-FORCADA, J,; RIBAS, I; PORTO DE MELLO, G.F; RODLER, F., ; CERINI, M. F; HANSLMEIER, A. ; HORVATH, J. E.

ASTROBIOLOGY

MARY ANN LIEBERT INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2023 vol. 23 p. 1 - 22

1531-1074

alites (NaCl minerals) have shown the potential to preserve microorganisms for periods of millions of years on Earth. These minerals were as well identified on Mars and in meteorites. In this study, we hypothesize that halites could protect microbial life forms in the surface of an airless body (e.g. meteorite), for instance during a lithopanspermia process (interplanetary travel step) in the early Solar System (3.8 Gyr ago). With this purpose we have performed simulation experiments in a synchrotron facility, considering the following parameters to beevaluated: vacuum (low Earth orbit,10-5 Pa), and vacuum UV radiation (VUV range 57.6 - 124 nm, fluence rate 7.14 Wm-2) considering a worst-case scenariowith high VUV fluxes and fluences comparable to the amount of radiation that microorganisms would receive from a stellar flare or superflare from the young Sun. The stellar VUV parameters were estimated using the very well-known solaranalog of the young Sun, κ 1Cet. To evaluate the protective effects of halite we entrapped halophilic archaea (Haloferax volcanii) and non-halophilic bacteria