Discovery of life in Earth's deep-sea rocks gives hopes for life on Mars

5 Apr 2020

image depicting 12 new species discovered by deep-sea mission in Atlantic ocean

Discovery of life in Earth’s deep-sea rocks gives hopes for life on Mars

Discovery of life in Earth’s deep-sea rocks gives hopes for life on MarsYohey Suzuki is a Japanese scientist who has been studying deep-sea volcanic rocks for over 10 years to find microbial life in them. Microbes are tiny organisms that can be seen only under a microscope.

Recently, Suzuki and his colleagues have discovered billions of bacteria living in tiny cracks of the deep-sea rocks.

How did they make the discovery?

Earth's ocean floor has underwater volcanoes that release lava, creating basaltic rock. These rocks have clay minerals in their cracks that enter slowly over millions of years.
 	Clay minerals are a good place for microbes to live in as they can get their nutrients from the clay.
 	So, scientists studied samples of basaltic rock found deep below the ocean floor between Tahiti and New Zealand. These ranged from 33 to 104 million years old.
 	After many failed experiments, they finally found the right method and found that each cubic cm contained about 10 billion bacterial cells!

How does this give scientists hope of finding life on Mars?

Mars, like Earth, has a basaltic crust that formed four billion years ago and it also has rich clay mineral deposits.
 	Scientists have noted that the Mars' surface and Earth's ocean floor have many similarities. So, if life can exist on Earth's ocean floor, Mars' surface may also have something similar.

Suzuki and his team will work with NASA to come up with ways to study rocks on Mars.

As NASA's Curiosity rover continues to explore Mars and study it, we may have an answer sooner than we think.

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Yohey Suzuki is a Japanese scientist who has been studying deep-sea volcanic rocks for over 10 years to find microbial life in them. Microbes are […]

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