位于智利北部的阿塔卡马沙漠是著名的火星模拟基地，该沙漠开展的一项研究Aeolian transport of viable microbial life across the Atacama Desert, Chile: Implications for Mars 发现，火星上有生命的微生物或许能随风中的粉尘颗粒在火星上运移。该研究发表于最新一期的《科学报告》。
摘要：Here we inspect whether microbial life may disperse using dust transported by wind in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a well-known Mars analog model. By setting a simple experiment across the hyperarid core of the Atacama we found that a number of viable bacteria and fungi are in fact able to traverse the driest and most UV irradiated desert on Earth unscathed using wind-transported dust, particularly in the later afternoon hours. This finding suggests that microbial life on Mars, extant or past, may have similarly benefited from aeolian transport to move across the planet and find suitable habitats to thrive and evolve.
