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Question
What kind of extremophiles are good analogues for life on other planets?
That depends on the planet; if your question includes planets around other stars, I suppose there may be any environment imaginable. If we limit ourselves to planets in our own solar system, like Mars and Europa, conditions there are generally cold and without oxygen (although there could be hot submarine vents at the bottom of Europa's global ocean). For life in the martian subsurface, we might think of analogue microbes that thrive deep below Earth's surface. On Europa, we should think about analogues among the microbes that live in the arctic ice, or the biology of the hot submarine vents in the Earth's ocean. Probably none of Earth's extremophiles would be happy if transplanted to Mars or Europa, but similar creatures might exist that have evolved in those conditions. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
March 5, 2007
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