Biogeological Analysis of Desert Varnish Using Portable Ramann Spectrometers

摘要

Desert varnishes are thin, dark mineral coatings found on some rocks in arid or semi-arid environments on Earth. Microorganisms may play an active role in their formation, which takes many hundreds of years. Their mineral matrix may facilitate the preservation of organic matter and is therefore of great relevance to martian exploration. Miniaturized Raman spectrometers (which allow nondestructive analysis of the molecular composition of a specimen) will equip rovers in forthcoming planetary expl