greenleakynipples
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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Baton Rouge
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Aliens have landed! Run for your bottled water!
Alien-like microbes found deep underground
DENVER (AP) --Scientists plumbing the bubbling, black depths of a geothermal hot spring in Idaho have discovered a unique community of microbes that thrive without sunlight or oxygen.
The organisms are similar to life as it might exist on Mars and other planets, the researchers suggested.
The one-celled organisms, known as Archaea, grow by consuming hydrogen that is produced by hot water reacting with bedrock 600 feet (180 meters) below the Beaverhead Mountains. They produce tiny amounts of methane as a byproduct of their weird metabolism.
Although types of Archaea have been found before, this community is unlike anything else on Earth. Details of the discovery appear in Thursday's issue of the Nature.
Most life on Earth flourishes not only in the presence of water, but also relies on oxygen, sunlight and organic carbon. But conditions on the rest of the planets -- and perhaps beyond the solar system -- are far more hostile.
Astrobiologists said these real-life microbes closely resemble what they imagine might be lurking beneath the dry, barren surface of Mars or the thick glaciers of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
"No self-respecting organism would want to be on the surface of Mars," said University of Arizona hydrologist Victor Baker, who did not participate in the study. "But if they are in the rocks below the permafrost, you could bring samples back to Earth and look for vestiges of them."
Microbes like these have been the subject of speculation for 30 years. But finding them was another matter. Just for this study, a team of seven government and university scientists spent more than a decade looking for promising locations.
Some places, like hot sulfur vents on the ocean floor, support rich and strange life forms. But they are not entirely devoid of organic carbon sources, since bits of decayed plant life drift to the sea floor and provide food.
The research team surveyed the volcanically active Yellowstone region, home to 80 percent of the world's geysers and half of its geothermal features. They were looking for a subterranean environment that had water but no sunlight, oxygen or organic carbon.
They zeroed in on the Lidy Hot Springs welling up near the border between the states of Idaho and Montana. With the help of landowner Charles E. Wilson, they sank specially designed instruments 600 feet (180 meters) down into the springs, where the subsurface water was 137 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). They collected the microbes with filters.
In light of the findings, researchers said the question should no longer be whether extreme life exists on Mars and elsewhere.
"Rather, did life originate there, or was it transplanted from Earth?" said University of Colorado planetary scientist Bruce Jakosky.
Other microbes found in the Yellowstone region and other extreme environments have been commercialized. Since they can thrive in high temperatures and even in battery acid, they are used to clean up pollution.
The study's lead author, geochemist Francis H. Chapelle of the U.S. Geological Survey, said he does not foresee a commercial future for the Idaho microbes.
"The water passes through some rhyolite deposits and picks up radioactivity on its way up," he said. "So you might not want to bottle it."
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Leakynips.
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01-17-2002 08:55 PM
