Weird Life Found in Earth's Driest Soil

[Judi Lynn]

Extreme microbes detected in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert hint at the ways organisms might eke out a living in the Martian underground.



Flowers bloom during a rare wet period in Chile's Atacama Desert in August 2017.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN BERNETTI, AFP, GETTY IMAGES

By Michael Greshko
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Chile's Atacama Desert is about as close as you can get to Mars without hitching a ride on a rocket: salty, windswept, and so bone dry, it'd be easy to mistake it for being lifeless.

But a new study confirms that within these seemingly barren soils, life is waiting patiently for its chance to thrive. A few feet beneath the Atacama's surface, exceptionally hardy strains of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes have adapted to withstand punishing dryness, damaging ultraviolet radiation, and extreme saltiness.

Most of the time, these critters are inactive, but when liquid water makes its infrequent appearance, the microbes awake from their slumber and shudder to life. (Find out how weird our home world really is in One Strange Rock, premiering March 26 on National Geographic.)

The discovery, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the incredible abilities of life on Earth to thrive in surprising places. What's more, the find hints at how life may have eked out a living on Mars after the planet's surface largely dried up billions of years ago. Perhaps Martian microbes have even hung on until today, waiting deep underground for the exceptionally rare dribble of water.

More:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/weird-life-found-earth-driest-soil-atacama-desert-mars-science/

[Judi Lynn]

1. There's a Place on Earth Eerily Similar to Mars, And Scientists Have Confirmed It Has Life

Life always finds a way.

PETER DOCKRILL 27 FEB 2018




Along the western coast of South America there's a vast desert so unimaginably parched it's effectively hell on Earth – but it's the similarities to another red destination that have scientists hot and bothered.

Chile's Atacama Desert is among the very driest places on the planet, so arid that rain may not fall on it for decades or centuries at a time. This makes the hostile landscape about the closest thing we have to Mars on Earth – and scientists just made a big discovery about it.

For the first time, researchers have observed microbial life rebounding in the incredibly dry core of the Atacama, demonstrating that this dusty, scorched environment is in fact – against all odds – an ecosystem.

For hopes of ever finding life on Mars, that unlikely discovery could mean everything.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/life-rebounds-after-eternity-without-water-earth-s-driest-places-atacama-desert-microbes-mars

Atacama Desert images:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrTcX4nAJVa9EAA5eSLuLkF;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNTc0ODMEX3IDMgRiY2sDZWFlcjdmOWNnbDI5ZyUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGZFVE9PSzFyWUgzS3VfNWJGaWk4THF3a19jX3JYc19ya1E2azM1dGQ0N2NwM1EtLSUyNnMlM0RkayUyNmklM0QzM3VxbUxPUWdlcU9kQ0s5NnlkVgRmcgMEZ3ByaWQDeVpucFVudV9ScE83LjRweEh4NWJaQQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9zdWdnAzEwBG9yaWdpbgNpbWFnZXMuc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMxNARxdWVyeQNhdGFjYW1hIGRlc2VydAR0X3N0bXADMTUxOTcxNDM1MwR2dGVzdGlkA251bGw-?gprid=yZnpUnu_RpO7.4pxHx5bZA&pvid=N5dOZTEwLjLlO2d6WQqJMAYQMjYwMAAAAAARmH4y&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&p=atacama+desert&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp

[Canoe52]

2. Judi Lynn, I always look for your posts. They are always so interesting!

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to share with us all this fascinating stuff!

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's a real treat to find them, Canoe52. Thank you, so much. n/t