The most Martian place on Earth | Armando Azua-Bustos

Prevoditelj: Anja Kolobarić Recezent: Sanda L

This is a picture of a sunset on Mars

Ovo je slika sumraka na Marsu,

taken by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2013.

koju je 2013. uslikala svemirska letjelica NASA-e.

Mars is a very cold planet,

Mars je jako hladan planet,

flooded with high levels of UV radiation

ima visoke razine UV-zračenja

and extremely dry.

te je iznimno suh.

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

Zapravo, Mars je presuh za život na kakav smo navikli.

I'm an astrobiologist.

Ja sam astrobiolog.

I try to understand the origin of life on Earth

Pokušavam razumjeti podrijetlo života na Zemlji

and the possibilities of finding life

i mogućnosti pronalaska života

elsewhere in the universe.

drugdje u svemiru.

People sometimes ask me,

Ljudi me nekad pitaju

how can you be an astrobiologist

kako mogu biti astrobiolog

if you don't have your own spaceship?

ako nemam vlastiti svemirski brod.

Well, what I do is that I study life

Ja proučavam život

in those environments on Earth

u dijelovima Zemlje

that most closely resemble other interesting places in the universe.

koji najviše nalikuju drugim zanimljivim mjestima u svemiru.

All life on Earth requires water,

Sav život na Zemlji zahtijeva vodu

so in my case I focus on the intimate relationship

pa se u mom slučaju usredotočavam na bliske odnose

between water and life

između vode i života

in order to understand

kako bih shvatio

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

bismo li mogli naći život na planetu suhom poput Marsa.

But since I do not have the 2.5 billion dollars

Ali budući da nemam 2,5 milijarde dolara

to send my own robot to Mars,

da pošaljem vlastitog robota na Mars,

I study the most Martian place on Earth,

proučavam najmarsovskije mjesto na Zemlji,

the Atacama Desert.

pustinju Atacamu.

Located in northern Chile,

Smještena je u sjevernom Čileu

it is the oldest and driest desert on Earth.

te je najstarija i najsuša pustinja na Zemlji.

To give you an idea of how dry it is,

Pokušat ću vam približiti koliko je suha.

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

Imajte na umu da ovdje u Vancouveru padne preko 1.000 milimetara kiše svake godine.

In the Atacama, there are places with no reported rains

U Atacami postoje mjesta u kojima kiša nije padala

in the last 400 years.

zadnjih 400 godina.

How do I know this?

Otkud ja to znam?

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

Pa, rodio sam se i odrastao u Atacami.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

So I had a unique advantage

Imao sam jedinstvenu prednost

when I started studying this desert.

kad sam počeo proučavati ovu pustinju.

So let me tell you guys a few fantastic examples

Reći ću vam nekoliko fantastičnih primjera

he has found

na temu

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

prilagodbe na život s gotovo nimalo vode.

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

Jedno od mojih prvih otkrića bio je ulaz u spilju

facing the Pacific Ocean.

koja gleda na Tihi ocean.

In this place, we reported a new type of microalgae

Tu smo našli novu vrstu mikroalgi,

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

koja raste samo iznad paukovih mreža koje prekrivaju ulaz u spilju.

Have you ever seen a spiderweb early in the morning?

Jeste li ikad vidjeli paukovu mrežu rano ujutro?

It's covered with dew,

Prekrivena je rosom

so this microalgae learned that in order to carry photosynthesis

pa je ova vrsta mikroalgi naučila da za fotosintezu

in the coast of the driest desert on Earth,

na obali najsuše pustinje na Zemlji,

they could use the spiderwebs.

može koristiti paukove mreže.

So here they may access the water from the fogs

Tu može uzimati vodu od magle,

that regularly cover these areas in the morning.

koja ujutro redovno prekriva ova područja.

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

U drugoj smo spilji pronašli drugu vrstu mikroalgi.

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

One kao izvor vode koriste oceansku maglicu,

and strikingly lives in the very bottom of a cave,

a žive na samom dnu spilje

so it has adapted to live with less than 0.1 percent

pa su se prilagodile životu s manje od 0,1 posto

of the amount of light that regular plants need.

količine svjetla koju trebaju obične biljke.

These type of findings suggest to me that on Mars,

Takva otkrića me navode na misao da bismo na Marsu

we may find even photosynthetic life inside caves.

mogli pronaći čak i fotosintetski život unutar spilja.

And by the way, that's me.

Usput, to sam ja.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

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

Gotovo 15 godina, ova regija Yungay, koju je otkrila NASA,

was thought to be the driest place of this desert,

smatrana je najsušim dijelom ove pustinje,

but I knew that it was not.

ali ja sam znao da nije.

How? You already know the answer.

Kako? Već znate odgovor.

Because I was born and raised in this desert.

Zato što sam rođen i odrastao u ovoj pustinji.

So I remembered that I usually see fogs in Yungay,

Sjetio sam se da inače viđam magle u Yungayu

so after setting sensors in a number of places,

i nakon što sam postavio senzore na više mjesta,

where I remember never seeing fogs or clouds,

gdje nikad nisam vidio maglu ili oblake,

I reported four other sites much drier than Yungay,

pronašao sam druga četiri mjesta puno suša od Yungaya,

with this one, María Elena South,

a ovaj, Maria Elena South,

being the truly driest place on Earth,

uistinu je najsuše mjesto na Zemlji,

as dry as Mars,

suho poput Marsa

and amazingly, just a 15-minute ride

i udaljeno samo 15 minuta autom

from the small mining town where I was born.

od malog rudarskog mjesta u kojem sam rođen.

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

U ovom istraživanju pokušavali smo pronaći granicu suhoće

for life on Earth,

za život na Zemlji,

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

mjesto toliko suho, da ništa na njemu ne može preživjeti.

But even here, well hidden underground,

Ali čak i ondje, dobro skriveno ispod zemlje,

we found a number of different microorganisms,

pronašli smo niz različitih mikroorganizama,

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

iz čega sam zaključio da su mnoga slično suha mjesta, poput Marsa,

may be inhabited.

možda naseljena.

We even have some preliminary evidences

Imamo neke preliminarne dokaze

that these microorganisms may still be active

da bi ovi mikroorganizmi mogli biti aktivni

in the desiccated state,

u dehidriranom stanju,

like walking mummies all around us,

poput hodajućih mumija svugdje oko nas,

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

i da možda koriste UV-zračenje kao izvor energije.

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

Ako se ovo potvrdi, to bi moglo imati ogroman utjecaj na našu definiciju života,

on how we look for life elsewhere in the universe.

na to kako gledamo na život drugdje u svemiru.

Due to its clear skies, by 2020,

Zahvaljujući vedrom nebu, do 2020. godine

60 percent of the biggest telescopes on Earth

60% najvećih teleskopa na Zemlji

will be located in the Atacama,

nalazit će se u Atacami

and while everyone else will be looking among the stars

i dok svi ostali budu gledali u zvijezde

to answer the question, "Are we alone?"

tražeći odgovor na pitanje "Jesmo li sami?",

I will be looking down to the ground

ja ću gledati u tlo

searching for this same answer

u potrazi za istim odgovorom

in my own backyard.

u svom dvorištu.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)