extremophiles
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Dark Splotches On Venus Could Be Signs Of Life
Venus, with its crushing atmospheric pressure and scorching surface temperatures, seems an unlikely place for life to take hold. But while the surface of this planet remains completely inhospitable, Venus’ atmosphere may be capable of harbouring microbial life, according to new research.
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Our Universe Could Be Littered With Alien Viruses, And We Should Be Looking For Them
It’s generally agreed that some kind of microbe will be the first form of life we discover on another planet, moon or other space rock. But hardly anyone thinks we’ll find an alien virus, which is weird, given how prolific and successful these biological entities are on Earth. A new study seeks to correct this…
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Freakishly Resilient Plants Managed To Survive A 450-Day Ordeal In Outer Space
In an experiment conducted on the International Space Station, two different types of naturally-occurring algae were exposed to the extreme conditions of space. Incredibly, both strains survived. It’s a finding that could further our understanding of how life originated on Earth, and how colonists might be able to sustain themselves on Mars.
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Sorry, Oxygen-Free Animals Don’t Exist After All
In 2010 a group of scientists announced that they’d found evidence of multi-cellular life in hyper-salty, oxygen-free pools at the bottom of the ocean. A new study indicates that what they thought were living animals were actually corpses taken over by bacterial “body-snatchers”.