The most Martian place on Earth | Armando Azua-Bustos

Translator: Alicia Ferreiro Reviewer: Marta Rodríguez

This is a picture of a sunset on Mars

Esta é unha fotografía dun solpor en Marte

taken by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2013.

feita polo róver Curiosity da NASA en 2013

Mars is a very cold planet,

Marte é un planeta moi frío,

flooded with high levels of UV radiation

anegado por altos niveis de radiación UV

e extremadamente seco.

and extremely dry.

De feito, Marte considérase demasiado seco para a vida tal e como a coñecemos.

In fact, Mars is considered to be too dry for life as we know it.

I'm an astrobiologist.

Eu son astrobiólogo,

I try to understand the origin of life on Earth

E intento entender a orixe da vida na Terra

e as posibilidades de atopar vida

and the possibilities of finding life

elsewhere in the universe.

nalgún outro lugar do universo.

People sometimes ask me,

Ás veces pregúntanme,

how can you be an astrobiologist

como podes ser astrobiólogo,

if you don't have your own spaceship?

se non tes unha nave espacial?

Well, what I do is that I study life

Ben, o que fago é estudar a vida

in those environments on Earth

nos contornos terrestres

that most closely resemble other interesting places in the universe.

que máis se parecen a outros lugares do universo.

Todas as vidas na Terra precisan auga,

All life on Earth requires water,

so in my case I focus on the intimate relationship

así que eu céntrome na íntima relación

entre auga e vida,

between water and life

in order to understand

para intentar entender

if we could find life in a planet as dry as Mars.

se poderiamos atopar vida nun lugar tan seco coma Marte.

But since I do not have the 2.5 billion dollars

Pero como non teño 2500 millóns de dólares,

para enviar un robot a Marte,

to send my own robot to Mars,

I study the most Martian place on Earth,

estudo o lugar máis marciano da Terra,

the Atacama Desert.

o deserto de Atacama.

Located in northern Chile,

Situado no norte de Chile,

it is the oldest and driest desert on Earth.

é o deserto máis antigo e seco da Terra.

Para que teñades unha idea do seco que é,

To give you an idea of how dry it is,

pensade que en Vancouver caen uns 1000 mililitros de chuvia ao ano

consider here in Vancouver it rains over 1,000 millimeters of rain every year.

In the Atacama, there are places with no reported rains

En Atacama, hai zonas en que non se rexistraron chuvias

in the last 400 years.

nos últimos 400 anos.

How do I know this?

Como sei isto?

Well, because I was born and raised in the Atacama --

Porque nacín e medrei en Atacama

(Risos)

(Laughter)

So I had a unique advantage

Así que partía cunha vantaxe única

when I started studying this desert.

cando comecei a estudar este deserto.

So let me tell you guys a few fantastic examples

Deixádeme darvos

un par de fantásticos exemplos que atopamos

he has found

sobre como se adaptou a vida a vivir practicamente sen auga.

on how life has adapted to live with almost no water at all.

One of my first findings was in the entrance of a cave

Unha das primeiras descubertas foi á entrada dunha cova

facing the Pacific Ocean.

mirando o océano Pacífico.

Neste lugar atopamos un novo tipo de microalgas

In this place, we reported a new type of microalgae

that grew only on top of the spiderwebs that covered the cave entrance.

que só medraba nas arañeiras que cubrían a entrada da cova.

Have you ever seen a spiderweb early in the morning?

Viron algunha vez unha arañeira pola mañá?

It's covered with dew,

Está cuberta de orballo,

so this microalgae learned that in order to carry photosynthesis

así que estas microalgas aprenderon que para facer a fotosíntese

na costa do deserto máis seco da Terra,

in the coast of the driest desert on Earth,

podían usar as arañeiras.

they could use the spiderwebs.

So here they may access the water from the fogs

Así poden acceder á auga das néboas

que adoitan cubrir esta zona polas mañás.

that regularly cover these areas in the morning.

In another cave, we found a different type of microalgae.

Noutra cova, atopamos outro tipo de microalgas.

Estas utilizan a brisa mariña como fonte de auga,

This one is able to use ocean mist as a source of water,

and strikingly lives in the very bottom of a cave,

e sorprendentemente sobreviven no máis fondo da cova,

so it has adapted to live with less than 0.1 percent

adaptáronse a vivir con menos do 0,1 por cento

of the amount of light that regular plants need.

da cantidade de luz que precisa unha planta normal.

Este tipo de descubrimentos suxiren que en Marte,

These type of findings suggest to me that on Mars,

poderiamos atopar incluso vida fotosintética dentro das covas.

we may find even photosynthetic life inside caves.

And by the way, that's me.

Por certo, este son eu

(Laughter)

(Risos)

Now, for almost 15 years this region of Yungay, discovered by NASA,

Durante case 15 anos, esta rexión de Yungay, descuberta pola NASA,

was thought to be the driest place of this desert,

considerábase o lugar máis seco dese deserto,

but I knew that it was not.

máis eu sabía que non o era.

How? You already know the answer.

Como? Xa sabedes a resposta.

Porque eu nacín e medrei neste deserto.

Because I was born and raised in this desert.

So I remembered that I usually see fogs in Yungay,

Lembro que vía néboas en Yungay,

así que tras poñer sensores en varios lugares

so after setting sensors in a number of places,

where I remember never seeing fogs or clouds,

nos que non lembraba ter visto néboas nin nubes,

I reported four other sites much drier than Yungay,

atopei outros catro lugares moito máis secos ca Yungay.

with this one, María Elena South,

Este, María Elena Sur,

é de verdade o lugar máis seco da Terra,

being the truly driest place on Earth,

as dry as Mars,

tan seco coma Marte,

and amazingly, just a 15-minute ride

e, incriblemente, a só 15 minutos

from the small mining town where I was born.

da pequena vila mineira en que nacín.

Ben, nesta investigación tentabamos buscar o límite seco

Now, in this search, we were trying to actually find the dry limit

for life on Earth,

da vida na Terra,

a place so dry that nothing was able to survive in it.

un lugar tan seco onde nada fose quen de vivir.

But even here, well hidden underground,

Pero aínda aí, ben agochados baixo terra,

atopamos unha serie de microorganismos

we found a number of different microorganisms,

which suggested to me that similarly dry places, like Mars,

que suxiren que lugares igual de secos, como Marte,

poderían estar habitados.

may be inhabited.

We even have some preliminary evidences

Incluso hai algunhas probas preliminares

that these microorganisms may still be active

de que estes microorganismos poderían estar activos

in the desiccated state,

nun estado disecado,

like walking mummies all around us,

como momias andantes rodeándonos,

e que poderían estar usando a radiación UV como fonte de enerxía,

and that they may be using UV radiation as a source of energy.

If confirmed, this would have a huge impact on our definition of life,

Se se confirma, tería un gran impacto na nosa definición da vida,

on how we look for life elsewhere in the universe.

en como buscamos vida no resto do universo.

Due to its clear skies, by 2020,

Debido aos seus ceos despexados, en 2020,

60 percent of the biggest telescopes on Earth

o 60 por cento dos maiores telescopios do mundo

will be located in the Atacama,

estarán localizados en Atacama,

and while everyone else will be looking among the stars

e, mentres todos os demais estarán mirando as estrelas,

to answer the question, "Are we alone?"

preguntándose se estamos sós,

I will be looking down to the ground

Eu estarei mirando o chan,

searching for this same answer

buscando a mesma resposta,

in my own backyard.

no meu propio patio.

Thank you.

Grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)