extreme environments tagged posts

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

By studying a stream on the UK coast, experts have calculated how much organic matter we might find on Mars, and where to look. Imperial College London scientists have found traces of fatty acids – key building blocks of biological cells – in Dorset’s acidic streams. They say that because of the similarity of acidic streams in Dorset and on Mars, their findings hint that life might once have existed on Mars.

By applying their findings to the Red Planet, they concluded that there could be nearly 12,000 Olympic sized pools of organic matter on Mars that could represent traces of past life. Dorset is home to highly acidic sulphur streams that host bacteria which thrive in extreme conditions...