Potential For Liquid Water Biochemistry Deep Under The Surfaces Of The Moon, Mars And Beyond

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for liquid water-based life deep beneath the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, and extrasolar rocky objects, considering thermal, pressure, and energetic constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a simple model to estimate subsurface habitable regions and biomass potential on these celestial bodies, incorporating thermal limits, size, temperature, and radionuclide abundance.

Findings

Subsurface habitable zones are plausible on Moon, Mars, and extrasolar objects.

Maximum biomass could be a few percent of Earth's subsurface biosphere.

Pressure constraints are unlikely to eliminate habitability prospects.

Abstract

We investigate the prospects for the past or current existence of habitable conditions deep underneath the surfaces of the Moon and Mars as well as generic bound and free-floating extrasolar rocky objects. We construct a simple model that takes into account the thermal limits of life as well as the size, surface temperature, and relative radionuclide abundance of a given object and yields the spatial extent of the subsurface habitable region. We also investigate the constraint imposed by pressure on habitability, and show that it is unlikely to rule out the prospects for life altogether. We estimate the maximum biomass that might be sustainable in deep subsurface environments as a function of the aforementioned parameters from an energetic perspective. We find that it might be a few percent that of Earth's subsurface biosphere, and three orders of magnitude smaller than Earth's global biomass, under ideal circumstances. We conclude with a brief exposition of the prevalence of rocky objects with deep biospheres and methods for detecting signatures of biological activity through forthcoming missions to visit the Moon and Mars.