CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Atacamaís microbialites, able to live in such extreme environment, arepossible candidates as models for searching life in other planets or moons.At present, little is known about their microstructure and composition.This study analyzes, mainly, the terrestrial microstructures in a dimensionalfield longer than 0.1 mm, through an original approach using photographsand macro pictures, appropriately magnified and consequentlylittle defocused, in comparison with analogous images shot by NASARovers on Martian outcroppings. A method able to permit comparison ofstructures and textures of terrestrial microbialites to the microscopicphoto images (MI) shot by the cameras mounted on the NASA rovers thatsince more ten years are present on the Red Planet (Opportunity, Spirit,Curiosity). The study highlights occurrence of widespread structures likesmicrospherules (or clots), often organized into some higher order settings,such are donuts, polispherules, filaments and, above all, intertwinedfilaments of microspherules, all showing features of an imperfect geometricalrepetitiveness. The structural analysis has been connected witha textural study by a multifractal analysis, that is able to distinguish terrestrialbiogenic stromatolites from abiogenic pseudo-stromatolites, andgiving us a tool that might be applied for astrobiological purposes.