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The bacteria found in a 600-meter-deep hole in Spain provided fascinating clues about possible extraterrestrial life that could be hiding on other planets.
Scientists have discovered that tiny creatures capable of turning sunlight into energy have come up with new ways to survive in the dark underground.
This ability to live far from the surface would be a valuable asset to all that inhabits Mars, where powerful radiation and a hostile environment make the surface of the planet virtually uninhabitable.
"The basement is a great place to live if you're on Mars," said Dr. Fernando Puente-Sancheza, research director at the National Biotechnology Center in Spain. L & # 39; Independent.
"On the surface of Mars, there is almost no atmosphere, so a lot of radiation can damage your life. If you go a few meters below the surface, you are protected, the environment is very stable. "
Dr. Puente-Sancheza said he was surprised at first to find cyanobacteria – a group of microbes largely defined by their ability to obtain energy through photosynthesis – living so far from the sun's rays.
"When we think of cyanobacteria, we think of photosynthesis," he explained.
Image showing cyanobacteria (red fluorescent markings) attached to rock fragments extracted from the subsoil (PNAS)
Although these microbes have already been found underground, it has been assumed that previously discovered small populations had landed there by accident – possibly seeping into the soil from the ocean.
But the bacteria living in the hole of the Iberian pyrite belt that Dr. Puente-Sancheza and his colleagues documented in their Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the paper was in full swing.
To understand how they did it, the researchers analyzed the genetic sequences of the bacteria to find clues.
1/30 Earth of the ISS
Terry W. Virts, flight engineer of expedition 42 of the International Space Station, took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the US Gulf Coast at sunset.
Nasa
2/30 March frozen slopes
This image of an area of the surface of Mars, about 1.5 km by 3 km, shows frosted gullies on a slope facing south in a crater. The photo was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, mounted on its Mars reconnaissance orbiter.
Nasa
3/30 Orion capsule splashes
The Orion capsule flew into space before returning a few hours later – after proving that it could be used someday to transport humans to Mars.
Nasa
4/30 Launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket
The launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, bringing three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone from the space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his Twitter account
Nasa
6/30 Black hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by exploring space – sharing images of black holes
Nasa
7/30 NuSTAR
The X-rays of the sun in this image show observations made by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopy Telescope System, or NuSTAR, superimposed on a photo taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This near infrared color image shows specular reflection, or the color of the sun, on a lake of hydrocarbons named Kivu Lacus on Titan, the moon of Saturn.
Nasa
9/30 Worlds apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, represented here, orbit both around Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" to the norms of the moon (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter) is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (396 kilometers), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere because of its own gravity imposed by its higher mass
Nasa
10/30 Solar eruption
A solar flare of class X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun on this image taken on September 10, captured by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
Nasa
11/30 Solar eruption
An image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a solar filament 200,000 km long tearing the solar corona in September 2013.
Nasa
12/30 Cassiopeia A c
A false-color image of Cassiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Great galaxy of magellanic clouds
Image of the galaxy of great magellanic clouds seen in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. Regions of space such as this one are those where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust.
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit
Mars Rover Spirit of NASA took the first picture of Spirit since the beginning of the communication problems a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Aurora morning of the space station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the aurora green lights from the International Space Station
16/30 Launching History – Making STS-41G Mission in 1984
The Space Shuttle Challenger departs from Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to make a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest spacecraft aboard a spacecraft at that time and STS-41G was the first to include two female astronauts.
17/30 A new perspective on an extraordinary group of galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity.
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remaining
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in great detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – the expanding remains of a huge star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, visible here in an image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recalls the motif located in the center of a sunflower.
20/30 A Hubble Cosmic Couple
The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the M1-67 nebula that surrounds it
21/30 Pluto's picture
Four images of the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create this enhanced overall color view of Pluto.
22/30 Fresh crater near Sirenum Fossae, Mars area
The HiRISE camera on NASA 's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this enlarged image of a "fresh" impact crater (at the geological scale, although quite old at the time). 39, human scale) in the region of Sirenum Fossae of Mars. This impact crater seems relatively recent because it has a clean border and well preserved ejectas.
23/30 Observations of the Earth Gemini IV in 1965
This photo of the Strait of Florida and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during Orbit no. 19 in 1965. The crew of the Gemini IV conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of the weather and terrain of the Earth, for the remainder of their four-day mission following the release into space Ed White's history on June 3rd.
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of escape into space
For 50 years, NASA "dresses" for the release in space. In this 1984 photo of the first space-free exit in astronomy, NASA's astronaut, Bruce McCandless, is at the heart of the first "field" test of a bag-in-the-bag device. Nitrogen propelled back called "Maneuvered Maneuver Unit (UM)".
25/30 Hubble looks at the busiest place in the Milky Way
This image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope presents the Arches group, the densest known star group of the Milky Way.
26/30 An astronaut seen from space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo of the International Space Station on September 2, 2014.
27/30 Giant relief on Mars
On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy reliefs formed by the wind, or forms of wind beds: undulations, transverse wind ridges, dunes and what is called "draa".
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A sokol combination helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the shuttle landed with the shipping commander 39, Koichi Wakata of the Japanese Agency. Aerospace Exploration (JAXA), Soyuz Commander, Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio. of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
29/30 The big red spot of Jupiter seen by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra observatory sees a heart in the darkness
1/30 Earth of the ISS
Terry W. Virts, flight engineer of expedition 42 of the International Space Station, took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the US Gulf Coast at sunset.
Nasa
2/30 March frozen slopes
This image of an area of the surface of Mars, about 1.5 km by 3 km, shows frosted gullies on a slope facing south in a crater. The photo was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, mounted on its Mars reconnaissance orbiter.
Nasa
3/30 Orion capsule splashes
The Orion capsule flew into space before returning a few hours later – after proving that it could be used someday to transport humans to Mars.
Nasa
4/30 Launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket
The launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, bringing three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone from the space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his Twitter account
Nasa
6/30 Black hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by exploring space – sharing images of black holes
Nasa
7/30 NuSTAR
The X-rays of the sun in this image show observations made by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopy Telescope System, or NuSTAR, superimposed on a photo taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This near infrared color image shows specular reflection, or the color of the sun, on a lake of hydrocarbons named Kivu Lacus on Titan, the moon of Saturn.
Nasa
9/30 Worlds apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, represented here, orbit both around Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" to the norms of the moon (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter) is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (396 kilometers), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere because of its own gravity imposed by its higher mass
Nasa
10/30 Solar eruption
A solar flare of class X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun on this image taken on September 10, captured by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
Nasa
11/30 Solar eruption
An image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a solar filament 200,000 km long tearing the solar corona in September 2013.
Nasa
12/30 Cassiopeia A c
A false-color image of Cassiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Great galaxy of magellanic clouds
Image of the galaxy of great magellanic clouds seen in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. Regions of space such as this one are those where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust.
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit
Mars Rover Spirit of NASA took the first picture of Spirit since the beginning of the communication problems a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Aurora morning of the space station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the aurora green lights from the International Space Station
16/30 Launching History – Making STS-41G Mission in 1984
The Space Shuttle Challenger departs from Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to make a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest spacecraft aboard a spacecraft at that time and STS-41G was the first to include two female astronauts.
17/30 A new perspective on an extraordinary group of galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity.
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remaining
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in great detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – the expanding remains of a huge star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, visible here in an image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recalls the motif located in the center of a sunflower.
20/30 A Hubble Cosmic Couple
The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the M1-67 nebula that surrounds it
21/30 Pluto's picture
Four images of the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create this enhanced overall color view of Pluto.
22/30 Fresh crater near Sirenum Fossae, Mars area
The HiRISE camera on NASA 's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this enlarged image of a "fresh" impact crater (at the geological scale, although quite old at the time). 39, human scale) in the region of Sirenum Fossae of Mars. This impact crater seems relatively recent because it has a clean border and well preserved ejectas.
23/30 Observations of the Earth Gemini IV in 1965
This photo of the Strait of Florida and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during Orbit no. 19 in 1965. The crew of the Gemini IV conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of the weather and terrain of the Earth, for the remainder of their four-day mission following the release into space Ed White's history on June 3rd.
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of escape into space
For 50 years, NASA "dresses" for the release in space. In this 1984 photo of the first space-free exit in astronomy, NASA's astronaut, Bruce McCandless, is at the heart of the first "field" test of a bag-in-the-bag device. Nitrogen propelled back called "Maneuvered Maneuver Unit (UM)".
25/30 Hubble looks at the busiest place in the Milky Way
This image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope presents the Arches group, the densest known star group of the Milky Way.
26/30 An astronaut seen from space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo of the International Space Station on September 2, 2014.
27/30 Giant relief on Mars
On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy reliefs formed by the wind, or forms of wind beds: undulations, transverse wind ridges, dunes and what is called "draa".
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A sokol combination helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the shuttle landed with the shipping commander 39, Koichi Wakata of the Japanese Agency. Aerospace Exploration (JAXA), Soyuz Commander, Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio. of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
29/30 The big red spot of Jupiter seen by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra observatory sees a heart in the darkness
They found evidence of the presence of chemical processes in these tiny creatures that could allow them to generate energy using hydrogen as fuel.
"Whenever samples contained large amounts of cyanobacteria, hydrogen concentrations decreased – which could indicate that cyanobacteria actually consume hydrogen," said Dr. Puente-Sancheza.
Cyanobacteria are robust creatures, and this extra chain to their bow suggests that they have few conditions that they can not adapt to live.
He also suggests a model for the type of extraterrestrial life forms that once inhabited Mars and still lived there.
"On Mars, the typical idea you get is that, if there was a life, it was a thing of the past, because it was so much better in the past – you had water on Mars, you had an atmosphere that would protect you, you volcanic activity that gave you more energy, "said Dr. Puente-Sancheza.
"What this tells us is that maybe things that were alive on the surface and had fun in the past – maybe they can colonize the subsoil and survive it." -Still be."
In June, the organic material collected by NASA's Curiosity robot on the surface of the red planet provided the best evidence to date that life had ever existed on its surface.
Scientists hope that these studies will serve as a basis for future expeditions in search of extraterrestrial life as more and more evidence becomes available to us for an underground habitable zone on Mars.
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