DailyDirt: Life, Life Everywhere

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Evidence of life hasn't been found outside of our planet (yet?), but life seems to be getting into nearly every nook and cranny of our dear Earth. Places that seem too cold or hot or dark have been shown to harbor life forms that survive in unusual ways, eating substances that aren't normally considered food. Here are just a few examples of these extremophiles that suggest life might exist on other worlds, even if the conditions don't seem ideal.

• Astronauts have actually discovered a new species of life... while training in an underground cave. The astronauts were taking a week-long ESA CAVES underground training course to prepare for duties on the international space station and to acclimate to working under extreme conditions, and they found a new kind of crustacean. [url]
• An ecosystem exists in the deepest layer of the Earth's ocean crust, in the gabbroic layer, living off hydrocarbons such as methane and benzene. This discovery could mean there may be life even deeper, possibly in the Earth's mantle. [url]
• Microbes isolated beneath 65 feet of Antarctic ice might define a new limit for life to survive. These little organisms live in Lake Vida without much sunlight, without oxygen, at -13°C, in acidic salt water. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: astronauts, biology, ecosystem, extremophiles, lake vida, life, microbes
Companies: esa