Biology
Scientific paper
Dec 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000spie.4137...89s&link_type=abstract
Proc. SPIE Vol. 4137, p. 89-95, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology III, Richard B. Hoover; Ed.
Biology
Scientific paper
Microbial life is found all over the globe. Diverse communities are even found in such places in which extreme conditions with respect of temperature, salinity, pH, and pressure prevail. Many of these environments were until recently considered too harsh to harbor microbial life. The micro-organisms adapted to an existence at the edge of life are termed extremophiles. They include members of the Prokaryotes (domains Archaea and Bacteria) and the Eukarya, including algae and protozoa. Extremophilic microbes thrive at low and high temperatures -- from subzero levels to above the boiling point of water, at both sides of the pH scale -- in acidic as well as in alkaline media, in hypersaline environments with salt concentrations of up to saturation, at high pressure, both in the deep sea and in the terrestrial deep subsurface where they are exposed to pressures of hundreds of atmospheres, and in other extreme conditions. In many cases they tolerate combinations of more than one environmental stress factor. Some of the extremophiles may be considered as 'living fossils' since their environment resembles the conditions that may have existed during the time life arose on Earth, more than 3.5 billion years ago. In view of these properties the extremophilic micro-organisms may be considered as model organisms when exploring the possibilities of the existence of extraterrestrial life. For example, the microbes discovered in ice cores recovered from the depth of the Lake Vostok in Antarctica may serve as a model simulating conditions prevailing in the permafrost subsurface of Mars or Jupiter's moon Europa. Microbial life in the Dead Sea or in Great Salt Lake may resemble halophilic life forms that may exist elsewhere in the universe, adapted to life at low water activities. Likewise, hyperthermophilic micro-organisms present on Earth in hot springs, hydrothermal vents and other sites heated by volcanic activity in terrestrial or marine areas, may resemble life forms that may exist on hot planets such as Venus.
Oren Aharon
Seckbach Joseph
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