Universe Today » Extreme Life

Bacteria Could Survive in Martian Soil

Nicholos Wethington — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:57:02 +0000

Multiple missions have been sent to Mars with the hopes of testing the surface of the planet for life – or the conditions that could create life – on the Red Planet. The question of whether life in the form of bacteria (or something even more exotic!) exists on Mars is hotly debated, and still requires a resolute yes or no. Experiments done right here on Earth that simulate the conditions on Mars and their effects on terrestrial bacteria show that it is entirely possible for certain strains of bacteria to weather the harsh environment of Mars.(...)
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With Moon Rocks in Hand, Parazynski Reaches Mt. Everest Peak

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:46:41 +0000

We've been following former astronaut Scott Parazynski's attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and now comes the news that he has successfully reached the summit, one year after a back injury forced him to give up his climb. "It was a wonderful experience, though and through," Parazynski said in a Skype interview with Miles O'Brien, "and certainly the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, both physically and mentally." Parazynski brought several objects with him to the world's highest summit, including rocks from the Moon, and remembrances of fallen astronauts. Parazynski is the first astronaut to summit Mt. Everest.
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First Observations of Biological Particles in High-Altitude Clouds

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:33:41 +0000

Wave clouds. Credit: Andrew Heymsfield

A team of atmospheric chemists has moved closer to what's considered the "holy grail" of climate change science: the first-ever direct detections of biological particles within ice clouds. Ice in Clouds Experiment – Layer Clouds (ICE-L) team mounted a mass spectrometer onto a C-130 aircraft and made a series of high-speed flights through a type of cloud known as a wave cloud. Analysis of the ice crystals revealed that the particles that started their growth were made up almost entirely of either dust or biological material such as bacteria, fungal spores and plant material. While it has long been known that microorganisms become airborne and travel great distances, this study is the first to yield direct data on how they work to influence cloud formation.
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A New Drake Equation? Other Life Not Likely to be Intelligent

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:13:54 +0000

Looking for signals from distant civilizations might be an effort in futility, according to scientists who met at Harvard University recently. The dominant view of astronomers at a symposium on the future of human life in the Universe seems to be that if other life is out there, it likely is dominated by microbes or other nonspeaking creatures.
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Panspermia Flower Power

Ian O'Neill — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:24:13 +0000

Panspermia is a hypothesis that suggests life isn't an Earth-only affair. The seeds of life may have spread throughout the Solar System and beyond via chunks of rock or comets, encountering planetary bodies, transporting spores or bacteria to other worlds. In short, we could be living in a cosmic ecosystem linked through simple interplanetary vagabond bacteria.

However, panspermia remains in the realms of speculation as we haven't found any examples of extraterrestrial life (so far), let alone the possibility that life may be roaming freely through the vacuum of space. But panspermia as a life-spreading mechanism remains a possibility.

Now, famous physicist and futurist Freeman Dyson has come forward with an idea about what we should be looking for during the search for extraterrestrial life. Dyson believes the search for ET is flawed, as we are looking for what we deem to be probable lifeforms; perhaps we should be looking for detectable lifeforms.

And what's one of the most detectable forms of life we know of? Flowers. What's more, these flowers may have spread as far afield as the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud…
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Submit Your Questions for Scott Parazynski and Keith Cowing

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:33:08 +0000

Scott and Danru on Pumor RI with Everest Behind Them. Credit: OnOrbit.com

Former astronaut Scott Parazynski is making an attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and has been sharing his adventures via Twitter, and his blog on OnOrbit.com. As we reported in in our article about Parazynski in March, he wants to share his experiences with as many people as possible. Earlier today, his "media sherpa," Keith Cowing from NASA Watch.com joined Parazynski at base camp and both Cowing and Parazynski have agreed to take questions from readers of Universe Today and answer them during their time on Mt. Everest. Parazynski has been blogging and Twittering during his preparations for the climb, and he even wants to Twitter from the summit. “I want to tell the story of exploration here on Earth and the corollaries it has with space exploration,” Parazynski told Universe Today before he left for Kathmandu, Nepal. “The intent is to share the story with as many people as we can, particularly young people.”

So submit your questions in the comments section and we'll relay them on. Questions can be about mountain climbing or space exploration. (...)
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Ancient Antarctic Ecosystem Could be Analog for Life on Other Worlds

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:18:07 +0000

An ecosystem found in this region of Antarctica. Courtesy of Jill Mikucki

Scientists have found an ancient ecosystem below an Antarctic glacier, one that has survived millions of years without light or oxygen in a pool of brine. The ecosystem contains a diversity of bacteria that thrive in cold, salty water loaded with iron and sulfur. The water averages 14 degrees Fahrenheit, but doesn't freeze because the water is three or four times saltier than the ocean. Scientists who discovered and studied the ecosystem found the bacteria convert the iron and sulfur into food. Life found in extreme conditions like this could explain how life might exist on other planets and serve as a model for how life can exist under ice. Some scientists have proposed that life could possibly be found under the outer ice layer of Jupiter's moon Europa.
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Without Nickel, Life on Earth Could Finally Breathe

Anne Minard — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:54:20 +0000

Caption: Banded iron formations like this from northern Michigan contain evidence of a drop in dissolved nickel in ancient oceans. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science

Researchers have long puzzled over why oxygen flourished in Earth's atmosphere starting around 2.4 billion years.

Called the "Great Oxidation Event," the transition "irreversibly changed surface environments on Earth and ultimately made advanced life possible," said Dominic Papineau of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory.

Now, Papineau has co-authored a new study in the journal Nature, which reveals new clues to the mystery in ancient sedimentary rocks.

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A Greenhouse on the Moon by 2014?

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:30:47 +0000

"Imagine a bright flower on a green plant in a little dome-shaped growth chamber, sitting on the landscape of the Moon, with the Earth rising up behind," said Taber MacCallum, CEO of Paragon Space Development Corporation. "I think it’s a great vision." That vision of the first Moon flower will likely become a reality, perhaps by 2014. Paragon has teamed up with Google Lunar XPRIZE contender Odyssey Moon to deliver a biological greenhouse to the lunar surface. "We've grown plants in space before, but this will be the first time we'll attempt to grow a plant on another world," MacCallum told Universe Today. "It's not just a great vision, but interesting science, too."
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Former Astronaut To Take Social Media to New Heights

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:08:36 +0000

Scott Parazynski during his attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Credit: OnOrbit.com

In 2008, astronaut Scott Parazynski came within 24 hours of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest when a painful back injury forced him to abandon his climb. Now, Parazynski is on his way back for another attempt at summitting the world's highest mountain peak. But this time, he wants to take the rest of the world with him. If everything works as planned, Parazynski will blog, podcast, vodcast and more during the climb, and he even wants to Twitter from the summit. "I want to tell the story of exploration here on Earth and the corollaries it has with space exploration," Parazynski told Universe Today before he left for Kathmandu, Nepal. "They are both very hostile, unforgiving environments that require a lot of training, a lot of gear, and a lot of thought. The intent is to share the story with as many people as we can, particularly young people." Parazynski and his team have even agreed to take questions from readers of Universe Today and answer them during their climb.
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Indian Balloon Experiment Nets Three New Bacteria

Anne Minard — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:12:03 +0000

Credit: ISRO

Indian scientists flying a giant balloon experiment have announced the discovery of three new species of bacteria from the stratosphere.

In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on gene sequencing, showed greater than 98 percent similarity with reported known species on earth. Three bacterial colonies, however, represented totally new species. All three boast significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbors on Earth.

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Life on Ceres: Could the Dwarf Planet be the Root of Panspermia?

Ian O'Neill — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:39:39 +0000

It has been theorised for a long time that the dwarf planet Ceres may be harbouring a lot of water. With the promise of water comes the hope that life may be present on this little world orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt. You may be forgiven in thinking that the search for life in the Solar System has gone a little crazy, after all, we haven't found life anywhere else apart from our own planet. However, if we do discover life on other planetary bodies apart from Earth, perhaps the panspermia hypothesis is more than just an academic curiosity. So why is Ceres suddenly so interesting? Firstly, it probably has water. Secondly, the ex-asteroid is so small that fragments of Ceres could have been kicked into space by meteorite impacts more readily than other larger planetary bodies, making it a prime candidate for seeding life on Earth…
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Russia Will Send Life to Phobos

Ian O'Neill — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:20:51 +0000

Boldly going where no tardigrade has gone before (edited by Ian O'Neill)

How ironic. Not content with searching for life on Mars, the Russian space agency and the US-based Planetary Society will soon be sending terrestrial life to the Martian moon Phobos. The mini-interplanetary travellers will consist of bacteria, spores, seeds, crustaceans, insects and fungi. Why? To see how biological life, in various forms, deals with space travel spanning three years.

So if you thought that a human (or monkey) would be the first of Earth's ambassadors to land on Mars or one of its moons, you'd be very mistaken…
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Could Living Organisms Be Hiding Inside Olympus Mons?

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:57:12 +0000

From orbit, Olympus Mons dominates the landscape of the Tharsis region on Mars. At 24 kilometers (15 miles) high, and 550 kilometers (340 miles) in diameter, the huge volcano is over three times larger than Mount Everest. But Olympus Mons has a structure that is somewhat lopsided: it is elongated to the northwest, shortened to the southeast. A new study reveals that the 'lopsidedness' may mean warm magma and possibly water could be close enough to Olympus Mons' surface to support thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria like those found near hydrothermal vents on Earth.
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Did Lightning and Volcanoes Spark Life on Earth?

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:04:55 +0000

Maybe the fictional Dr. Frankenstein wasn't so crazy after all. Two scientists have resurrected an old experiment, breathing life into a "dead" notion about how life began on our planet. New analysis shows that lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth.

"It's alive!"…

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Meteorites Could Preserve Evidence of Alien Life

Ian O'Neill — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 02:25:37 +0000

In an effort to understand how organic chemicals might survive after a period in the vacuum of space and then violent re-entry through the atmosphere, scientists have uncovered some interesting results. Last year, the ESA/Russian Foton-M3 mission was launched to test the effects of microgravity on various biological samples. However, a sample of Orkney rock had a harder journey than most. Attached to the outside of the craft, this sample underwent extreme heating during the descent toward the plains of Kazakhstan. Although most of the sample was vaporized, scientists have unveiled results that the sample still contains very obvious signs that it once harboured life. These exciting results set new limits on how organic chemicals may survive unaltered for long periods in space before plunging through a planetary atmosphere, plus it raises some interesting questions into how future searches for extraterrestrial life may be performed…
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Perchlorate on Mars Could be Potential Energy Source for Life; Phoenix Team Fires Back at Allegations

Ian O'Neill — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:46:39 +0000

The trench known as Snow White on Sol 43 (NASA/JPL/UA)

It's been a busy few days for the Phoenix Mars lander rumour-mill. On Friday, an article was published in Aviation Week reporting an undisclosed source from the NASA team analysing results from the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) had come forward saying Phoenix scientists were in communication with the White House. Apparently there had been new, "provocative" results to come from the MECA, possibly a bigger discovery than last Thursday's announcement about the scientific proof of water in the Martian regolith. Naturally, the blogosphere went crazy in response to this news. Yesterday, the Phoenix team issued a press release focussing on conflicting results from the MECA and Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instruments. A MECA sample was found to contain a toxic substance known as perchlorate, usually an oxidizing by-product from industrial processes here on Earth. However, a recently analysed sample from the TEGA turned up no supporting evidence for perchlorate. The study is ongoing. Today, the Phoenix team organized a press conference to discuss a more positive view on the possible discovery of perchlorate, and fired back at recent allegations that science was being withheld from the public…
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Life Found a Mile Below Terrestrial Seabed; Implications For Life on Mars

Ian O'Neill — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:37:30 +0000

We all know how hard life can be, but spare a thought for the microbes recently discovered 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) below the seabed off the coast of Canada. The living conditions are cramped, the environment is a searing 100°C (212F), and yet these hardy cells appear to be thriving. In the midst of the historic landing of Phoenix in the arctic wastes of Mars yesterday, the interest in finding life on the Red Planet has, yet again, reached fever pitch. Although Phoenix isn't built to look for life, it is assessing the Martian surface water content for signs that it may (or may have been able to) support life. This new discovery of life so deep below the Earth's surface may set some new limits on just how extreme life can be on other planets…
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Imminent Discovery of Life On Mars?

Tammy Plotner — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:41:39 +0000

Do you think there is life on Mars? Do you think Phoenix will find evidence of it? Now there's a blog that's trying to collect a snapshot of the opinions of scientists, amateurs, and everyday people. "Imminent Discovery" thinks Phoenix may find simple life. Finding this evidence will definitely become headlines… If it happens. Is it possible it might have originated from earth? Perhaps from space, like the famous Antarctica meteorite which was believed to contain evidence of life transported here from Mars? (...)
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Finding "Tightens the Noose on the Possibility of Life" on Mars

Ian O'Neill — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:53:49 +0000

So far, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission has turned up very little evidence that there is, or was, life on the Red Planet. Even more bad news is on the way from data sent back from NASA rovers Opportunity and Spirit – it would seem that the planetÂ was "too salty" for even the toughest organisms on Earth to survive. It would appear, from new results presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, that although Mars had abundant supplies of water in the past, its oceans would have been too acidic, withÂ poisonous concentrations of minerals. Even when conditions were best on the surface, the very toughest microbes will have found it difficult…
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Extremophile Hunt Begins in Antarctica, Implications for Exobiologists

Ian O'Neill — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:54:05 +0000

An expedition has set off for Antarctica's Lake Untersee in the quest to find bacteria living in one of the most extreme environments on Earth. The bacteria-hunting team are looking for a basic lifeform in a highly toxic location. Resembling the chemistry of Mars, moons of Jupiter and Saturn, even comets, the ice-covered lake may hold some clues to how life might survive, thrive even,Â beyondÂ the "normality"Â of our planet.
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Earth, Barely Habitable?

Fraser Cain — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:59:20 +0000

Our home planet has been often described in glowing, nurturing terms. A cradle for life, right in the goldilocks zone. But our planet is actually right on the edge of habitability. If it were any smaller, and a little less massive, plate tectonics might never have gotten started. It turns out, life needs plate tectonics.
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Sulphur Spring Harbours Extreme Bacteria

Fraser Cain — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 19:30:56 +0000

A team of scientists has set out to visit an unusual hot spring on Ellesmere Island near the North Pole. This spring spews out sulphur-rich water that has become an ecosystem for bacteria in an otherwise lifeless ice field. The researchers are hoping to understand the underground structure of the spring, and locate the source of the sulphur. An environment like this could help scientists search for signs of life in other hotspots in the Solar System, such as Mars, Europa, or Enceladus.
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Ancient Life Survived Snowball Earth

Fraser Cain — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:41:53 +0000

Approximately 2.3 billion years ago, bacterial life had generated enough oxygen to make the air breathable for larger creatures. Unfortunately, this was also a stage when our planet went through one of its "Snowball Earth" phases, when the entire planet was encased in kilometer-thick snow and ice. Scientists have found evidence that multi-celled eukaryotes – our distant ancestors – were thriving on Earth, before and after the big chill. While most of the planet was covered, there were probably pockets that were ice free, where islands of life could survive.
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