Professor James Holden of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is leading a NASA-funded study examining what the chemistry of alien life might look like on Jupiter's icy moon – using bacteria found a kilometer below the sea surface.
While science fiction films portray extraterrestrial life as green creatures with large elliptical heads, science tends to believe that if extraterrestrial life exists, it is probably microbial.
With funding from or assistance from NASA, Professor James Holden, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is exploring what such life might look like on Jupiter's moon Europa, using a surprising terrestrial parallel: underwater volcanoes in the deep ocean.
Europa is covered in a thick layer of ice, but scientists believe that beneath it lies a salty, liquid ocean, separated by a warm core – a pattern that is very reminiscent of the environment in which hydrothermal vents exist on Earth’s seafloor. These deep volcanic vents emit minerals and gases in conditions of extreme heat, complete darkness and the absence of oxygen – an extreme living environment that hosts unique microorganisms.
“I’ve been studying underwater volcanoes since 1988,” says Holden. He and his team use manned or robotic submersibles to collect samples of single-celled organisms from the ocean floor and bring them to his lab, which accurately simulates the extreme conditions of existence—including temperature, pressure, and chemical composition.
Completely foreign chemistry?
Despite the similarities, Holden emphasizes that Europa is not Earth. "We need to ask: What is the chemistry that allows life on Europa, and how is it different from that on Earth?"
The bacteria that live in them break down hydrogen to produce energy, using unique enzymes called hydrogenases. However, there are different types of these enzymes – which work in different ways, and it is possible that in different environments they create creatures that are completely different in structure and function.
The research focuses on identifying the connections between chemical composition (such as iron, sulfur, carbon and hydrogen) and cellular physiology. “We’ll try to understand how these processes contribute to the functioning of the organism,” says Holden. The larger task: to understand whether life could exist on Europa – and what conditions would allow it to exist. The answer may lie right here, in the depths of Earth’s oceans.
The bigger task: to understand whether life could exist on Europa – and what conditions would allow it to exist. The answer may lie right here, in the depths of Earth's oceans.
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What scientific research is not stupid in your opinion?
I wonder who is funding this current idiocy?