Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
EPSC Abstracts
Vol.14, EPSC2020-149, 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-149
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Measurements of bio-signature in ancient micrometre-sized fossils with a miniature laser mass spectrometer

Marek Tulej1, Rustam Lukmanov1, Andreas Riedo1, Valentine Grimaudo1, Coenraad de Koning1, Peter Wurz1, Niels F. W. Lightering2, Anna Neubeck3, and Magnus Ivarsson4
Marek Tulej et al.
  • 1University Bern, Physics Institute, Bern, Switzerland (marek.tulej@space.unibe.ch)
  • 2Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 3Department of Geological Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden
  • 4Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Searches for the past and present life on the planetary surfaces will be involving multilevel characterisation of the planetary rocks and soils within potentially habitable environments. Some up to three billion years old stromatolites or fossilised bacterial colonies are particularly interesting. They are found on the Earth and thought to be earliest life forms preserved within the terrestrial sedimentary rocks and can be a benchmark for searches of bio-relevant objects on planetary surfaces. By combining the microscope-camera system and mass analyser one can identify micro-fossilised material within the rocks by means of specific morphological details and characteristic chemical composition. We discuss the results of the studies on ancient microfossils obtained by space-born instrumentation, microscope-camera system combined with laser mass spectrometer. Both, the microscope imaging and chemical analyses can be conducted with micrometre spatial resolution. We demonstrate that the morphological record is helpful but not sufficient to identify bio-relevant material. Yet, while combined with elemental and isotope and with help depth profiling method, the compositional analysis can distinguish between abiotic and biological nature of the material. Detection of biosignature in measurements of fossilised materials with a miniature laser ablation ionisation mass analyser.

 

[1] M. Tulej, A. Neubeck, M. Ivarsson, A. Riedo, M.B. Neuland, S. Meyer, P. Wurz, Chemical Composition of Micrometer-Sized Filaments in an Aragonite Host by a Miniature Laser Ablation/Ionization Mass Spectrometer, Astrobiology, 15 (2015) 669-682.

[2] A. Neubeck, M. Tulej, M. Ivarsson, C. Broman, A. Riedo, S. McMahon, P. Wurz, S. Bengtson, Mineralogical determination in situ of a highly heterogeneous material using a miniaturized laser ablation mass spectrometer with high spatial resolution, International Journal of Astrobiology, 15 (2016) 133-146.

[3] R. Wiesendanger, D. Wacey, M. Tulej, A. Neubeck, M. Ivarsson, V. Grimaudo, P. Moreno-Garcia, A. Cedeno-Lopez, A. Riedo, P. Wurz, Chemical and optical identification of micrometer-sized 1.9 billion-year-old fossils by combining a miniature laser ablation ionization mass spectrometry system with an optical microscope, Astrobiology, 18 (2018) 1071-1080.

[4] A. Riedo, A. Bieler, M. Neuland, M. Tulej, P. Wurz, Performance evaluation of a miniature laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometer designed for in situ investigations in planetary space research, Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 48 (2013) 1-15.

[5] M. Tulej, A. Riedo, M.B. Neuland, S. Meyer, P. Wurz, N. Thomas, V. Grimaudo, P. Moreno-Garcia, P. Broekmann, A. Neubeck, M. Ivarsson, CAMAM: A Miniature Laser Ablation Ionisation Mass Spectrometer and Microscope-Camera System for In Situ Investigation of the Composition and Morphology of Extraterrestrial Materials, Geostand Geoanal Res, 38 (2014) 441-466.

How to cite: Tulej, M., Lukmanov, R., Riedo, A., Grimaudo, V., de Koning, C., Wurz, P., Lightering, N. F. W., Neubeck, A., and Ivarsson, M.: Measurements of bio-signature in ancient micrometre-sized fossils with a miniature laser mass spectrometer, Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 September–9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-149, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-149, 2020