Sentences with phrase «extreme microbial life»

Since the reaction produces nitrous oxide with a specific isotopic signature, Joye says: «This could be an easy way to «sniff» around the surface of Mars looking for pockets of subsurface brine that might be hotspots for extreme microbial life.»

Not exact matches

Some archaea — a domain of microbial life that was little understood when the Viking landers reached their destination — live in even more extreme situations, flourishing in temperatures far above the boiling point of water and surviving in thick brine.

You are dealing on Mars with what I call extremophile extreme environments on steroids,» she says, «and you don't look for microbial life with telescopes from Mars orbit.»

Using a portable, miniature DNA sequencing device (Oxford Nanopore MiniON), the researchers show for the first time that not only can the tool be used for examining environmental samples in extreme and remote settings, but that it can be combined with other methodology to detect active microbial life in the field.

Field observations of microbes recovered from deep drill cores, deep mines, and the ocean floor, coupled with laboratory investigations, reveal that microbial life can exist at conditions of extreme temperatures (to above 110ºC) and pressures (to > 10,000 atmospheres) previous thought impossible.

While, for now, these questions are still uncertain, field research in places like Rotorua are of extreme importance to advance our knowledge of the limits of life on Earth and possible microbial life on Mars.

The latest findings of microbial life flourishing in the extreme environment of subglacial Lake Whillans in Antarctica, which were detailed in the first part of this article, are further hinting at the possibility of life existing in a similar fashion as well in the mysterious, underground alien waters of Europa.