There are still ecosystems on Earth that have not yet been explored. Some very interesting ones are high pressure underground lakes under the ice cap in Antarctica. These lakes are kept warm by geothermal energy and insulated by kilometers of ice above. Scientists have drilled into one of the lakes, Lake Vostok , and plan to send a robot to collect water samples. This environment may be similar to some of the moons of Jupiter so exploring this environment and others like it are of particular interest to astrobiologists.
Tardigrades are impressive organisms. Also known as water bears because of their appearance, they have two strategies for survival in extreme environments.
In case of flooding, these microscopic animals can inflate themselves into a balloon-like form and float to the surface of the water to get oxygen. They have another strategy which makes them one of the heartiest organisms known. In the case of drought or cold, these little animals can replace most of the water in their bodies with a sugar called trehalose. These sugar solutions do not form damaging ice crystals when frozen, and tardigrades have survived for over a century in museum samples, and many tardigrades survived a 12 day journey into the cold vacuum of space onboard the FOTON M3.
Tardigrades protected by a UV filter almost all survived. Most of the ones without the filter did not. He believed that these hydrocarbons provide the carbon for an underground ecosystem, perhaps completely isolated from our biosphere. Some of these organisms were then tested to see if they could survive in those underground conditions, which would prove that they were not the result of contamination during the drilling process.
Some of these microbes were put into a sealed flask with hot water, carbon dioxide and basalt for a year, and not only did they survive, they thrived under these conditions. Whatever the source of the petroleum may be, and most geologists still believe that it was formed by the remains of plant matter there seem to be at least some forms of life living and thriving in it. The variety of adaptations organisms make - to extreme temperatures and other extremes such as very acidic or very alkaline conditions - are very diverse.
Mattimore and J. Daly and K. Mancinelli, M. White, and L. Nageli and Haloarcula Sp. Mojzsis and G. Friedmann, A. Druk, and C. Shi et al. Wilson et al. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.
Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book. Switch between the Original Pages , where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text. To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. Ready to take your reading offline?
Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available. Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released.
Get This Book. Visit NAP. Looking for other ways to read this? No thanks. Suggested Citation: "3 Life in Extreme Environments. Preventing the Forward Contamination of Europa. Page 14 Share Cite. Page 15 Share Cite. Page 16 Share Cite. Page 13 Share Cite. Login or Register to save! Stay Connected! The organisms that live in these places have highly specialised adaptations. Examples of extreme environments include the Polar Regions, deserts, the deep ocean bed, hot geothermal springs and the tops of our highest mountains.
The North Pole is called the Arctic and contains polar bears. The South Pole is the Antarctic. It has no polar bears, but many penguins. In the Northern hemisphere summer the North Pole has has 24 hours of daylight and the South Pole experiences 24 hours of night.
This is then reveresed during the Northern hempisphere winter. Animals, like polar bears, at the North Pole are adapted to suit these conditions. They have thick white fur for insulation and camouflage.
They have acute senses of smell and sight to hunt prey.
0コメント