Does life exist on a planet with a harsh environment like Mars?
>>>Survive extraterrestrial life?
DailyMail said a group of scientists from the University of Oregon collected some microorganisms in a lava pit near Newberry Crater in the Cascades Mountains in the US state of Oregon, at an altitude of about 1500m, where the harsh environment is equivalent to the surface of Mars and they found that these microorganisms still grow in the absence of oxygen and no organic matter to eat.
Olympus Mons, the largest volcano on Mars also contains olivine.
These microorganisms live on the iron found in a piece of mineral found here. It is olivine, which is also found in volcanic rocks on Mars.
This microorganism is one of the most popular microorganisms on Earth. Amy Smith, a graduate student at Oregon University and one of the authors of the study, said. You can find microorganisms with them in caves, on your skin, on the ocean floor or anywhere. The difference in this case is that these microorganisms have unique characteristics that make it possible to survive in conditions like on Mars.
Scientists have shown that these microorganisms can adapt to harsh living conditions. Under normal conditions, room temperature, moderate oxygen levels, these microorganisms will consume organic substances such as sugar. But when the scientists took the food, adjusted the room temperature near the freezing temperature, reduced the amount of oxygen, the microbes turned to eating the food they could use in the lava pit. It is Olivine mineral, a mineral that is very popular in volcanoes on Earth as well as on Mars.
Martin Fish, a professor at the University of Oregon and one of the authors, said: The behavior of this microorganism has not been previously recorded. When volcanic rock layers come into direct contact with air, oxygen in the atmosphere will oxidize iron in them before microbes can eat. But in the lava pit, the rock layer is covered by snow and thus avoiding direct contact with the air so the iron is not oxidized.
Professor Fish studied a meteorite of Mars origin, containing signs that these microorganisms were once present. And the same sign is also found on the rock layers of lava pits in Newberry crater.
Although this study does not accurately simulate what can be found on Mars, it does show that microorganisms can live in similar conditions.
