The blue holes of the Bahamas yield a scientific trove that may even shed light on life beyond Earth. If only they weren’t so dangerous to explore…

Astrobiologist Jenn Macalady of NAI’s Penn State team had the opportunity to participate in a National Geographic expedition to the Bahamas’ blue holes last year. The story made the cover of the August 2010 magazine.

She says the primary findings of the expedition for astrobiology so far are that the anoxic waters of the blue holes are new analogs for early, anoxic Earth oceans, and that they host an unexpected diversity of anoxygenic phototrophs that could help us to unravel the evolutionary history of photosynthetic pathways and the archaean biosphere.