The Pantelleria Bagno dell'Acqua lake: a new Mars-like environment as a reactor for prebiotic chemistry

The ongoing exploration of planets such as Mars is producing a wealth of data which is being used to shape a better understanding of potentially habitable environments beyond the Earth. On Mars, the relatively recent identification of minerals which indicate the presence of neutral/alkaline aqueous activity has increased the number of potentially habitable environments which require characterization and exploration. The study of terrestrial analogue environments enables us to develop a better understanding of where life can exist, what types of organisms can exist and what evidence of that life may be preserved. Recently, a new site has been identified in Italy and its characterization has begun: the Bagno dell'Acqua lake, located in the island of Pantelleria in Sicily, Italy. The possibility that cyclic ribonucleotides could polymerize abiotically in situ opens up the possibility of investigating the origin of life in interesting extraterrestrial analogues.