Antarctic Microbes Could Live on Mars

eldavojohn writes "Recent research has shown that microbes found in an Antarctic lake could survive the coldest temperatures on Mars. From the article, 'And they found that these species of microorganisms "huddled" together in colder temperatures to form a chemically linked unit called a biofilm. The finding marks the first time this phenomenon has been detected in the Antarctic species of so-called extremophiles. The findings provide more evidence for the ideas that liquid found beneath Mars' surface could harbor microbial life and that life could exist elsewhere in the solar system and galaxy, which is generally incredibly cold.' Their genes are currently being sequenced to determine which give the organisms 'cold-shock' proteins and their resistance to cold."

Comments

Study hot life instead

[Harmonious Botch]

Ok, so life can exist where it is really cold. But it will be SLOW. It will do things slowly, it will evolve slowly. And it will probably be too slow to have become intelligent yet. In short: it will be boring.
We can learn a lot more by studying something with a time scale several orders of magnitude faster.
We should be looking for life that can exist at our temp and time scale, or even higher and faster. It is likely to have evolved more, and has a better chance of being intelligent. Focus on finding life on Venus, not Mars. If it is not there, start it by seeding with a few designed high-temp organisms. We could learn a lot by studying it.
And if it eventually out-evolves us, then it probably will regard us as boring, and will leave us alone.

Re:Study hot life instead

[Laur]

Mars is a far better candidate for terraforming than Venus.

While perhaps true, terraforming anything is so far ahead of our technological curve it is staggering. Far more interesting to me is initial colonization, and of the two, Venus is actually far more hospitable that Mars, at least as long as you don't mind living in floating cities about 50 km up. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus for the basics.

Re:Study hot life instead

[khallow]

While perhaps true, terraforming anything is so far ahead of our technological curve it is staggering. Far more interesting to me is initial colonization, and of the two, Venus is actually far more hospitable that Mars, at least as long as you don't mind living in floating cities about 50 km up. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus for the basics.

Not really. Humans have become quite adept at terraforming Earth. And it's a non sequitur to claim that building floating cities, a task which has never been accomplished on Earth, is somehow easier than building traditional ground habitats on Mars.

Another interesting Mars story

[LaughingCoder]

This story from Oct. 30th Boston Globe is interesting. It talks about how we may have missed detecting life on Mars back in 1976 during the Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions. http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/1 0/30/could_we_have_missed_life_on_mars/

Re:But they thrive only when it gets warmer

[kfg]

Do not confuse atmospheric temperatures with local temperatures. If you'd had a blacktopped parking lot in Antarctica you might have found its temperature to be well above freezing and Martian soil, where the microbes live, can be as warm as 80 degrees F.

It's a radiation abosorbtion thing.

KFG

Re:It's possible, but is it likely?

[Red Flayer]

The origin of Earth's extremophiles is that of life that evolved from organisms which existed in relatively benign environments, but were pushed into extreme environments through competition.

Not necessarily. It's quite possible (likely, even) that life existed/began in what we would consider extreme environments, then evolved according to the changing conditions on the planet. Today we have what we would consider benevolent conditions on most of the planet's surface, yet many of the organisms of a billion years ago might have a very hard time surviving.

Re:But they thrive only when it gets warmer

[dargaud]

Entirely correct. I've observed liquid water at -25C on the high Antarctic plateau, on black metal in the sun without wind. But it is a rare occurence and doesn't last very long. What occurs naturally are black rock which get plenty warm enough in the sun, also on Mars I believe. Or much more interesting and on topic to this discussion: cryptoendolith (or more simply endolith): life forms that hide inside clear rock: they get sunlight through the clear rock, protection from the elements, air by porous diffusion... It's a whole ecosystem in a few mm of thickness. It shows if you break a clear rock as a green line about a cm underneath the surface. I have a picture of an endolith here and Wikipedia has, of course, more information.