Nora Noffke, a professor at Old Dominion University (Virginia, USA), visited the Institute of Geosciences in June at the invitation of Fresia Ricardi-Branco, a professor in the Department of Geology and Natural Resources at the IG. The purpose of the visit was to collaborate on research about the Botucatu Formation (funded by FAPESP), an ancient desert from the Lower Cretaceous period (145-125 million years ago) in the interior of São Paulo state, considered one of the largest fossil deserts in the world. One of Noffke's objectives is to use the features found in this ancient desert as analogues to those of the deserts on Mars.
Noffke recently joined the European Space Agency (ESA) team to search for evidence of extinct life on Mars using images captured by rovers – vehicles that traverse parts of the red planet in search of biosignatures of ancient life. “We would like to look for life on Mars, where there are many deserts. If we know what to look for on Earth, in a fossil desert system, we can use that knowledge to identify some kind of biosignature associated with past life in the fossil deserts on Mars,” explains Noffke.
The German researcher participated in a field activity in the Botucatu Formation along with students from the IG and researchers from the São Paulo State University (Unesp) in Ourinhos and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The central focus of the study was to investigate the presence of microbial mats in this Formation. The partnership with Noffke, in addition to contributing to studies on life on Mars, will contribute to advances in the study of the Botucatu Formation itself. During the fieldwork, the group found very well-preserved rock structures that confirmed the existence of these mats under different humidity conditions within the desert.
According to Fresia Branco, this type of life had never been found in this area. “The way the biofilms fossilized and the features associated with them in the Botucatu desert could be similar to the fossil biosignatures of Mars,” explains the professor from the IG (Institute of Geosciences). Since these microbial structures indicate the presence of moisture and served as sustenance for other living beings that inhabited the region, the Botucatu Formation will serve as a “library of possibilities” and a terrestrial analogue to help the European Space Agency identify signs of life on Mars.
The results of the research at the Botucatu Training Center should be published soon.
This was Noffke's second visit to Unicamp. In 2023, the professor from Old Dominion University gave a lecture at the IG about her studies on prospecting for fossil life on Mars.
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