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posted by takyon on Friday April 10 2020, @08:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the fallen-through-the-cracks dept.

Bacteria in rock deep under sea inspire new search for life on Mars

Newly discovered single-celled creatures living deep beneath the seafloor have given researchers clues about how they might find life on Mars. These bacteria were discovered living in tiny cracks inside volcanic rocks after researchers persisted over a decade of trial and error to find a new way to examine the rocks.

Researchers estimate that the rock cracks are home to a community of bacteria as dense as that of the human gut, about 10 billion bacterial cells per cubic centimeter (0.06 cubic inch). In contrast, the average density of bacteria living in mud sediment on the seafloor is estimated to be 100 cells per cubic centimeter.

"I am now almost over-expecting that I can find life on Mars. If not, it must be that life relies on some other process that Mars does not have, like plate tectonics," said Associate Professor Yohey Suzuki from the University of Tokyo, referring to the movement of land masses around Earth most notable for causing earthquakes. Suzuki is first author of the research paper announcing the discovery, published in Communications Biology.

Also at CNET.

Deep microbial proliferation at the basalt interface in 33.5–104 million-year-old oceanic crust (open, DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-0860-1) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by dry on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:22AM

    by dry (223) on Sunday April 12 2020, @05:22AM (#981431) Journal

    There's also a plausible hypothesis that life originated on Venus and migrated outwards to the Earth and Mars and perhaps beyond.
    The solar system was a lot different 3 or 4 billion years back. Sure be nice to have a time machine, even if it only took pictures.

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