From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Wed Jan 16 2002 - 21:00:41 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: baalke@jpl.nasa.gov
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 3:27 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: New Type of Earth Ecosystem Could Be Found On Other Planets
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020114/020114-7.html
Life, as it was in the beginning?
A new type of Earth ecosystem could be found on other planets.
JOHN WHITFIELD
Nature Science Update
January 17, 2002
Scientists have found a community of microbes unlike anything else on Earth.
Conditions in this ecosystem could mimic those on Earth when life began, and
might exist elsewhere in today's Solar System.
Home to the microbes is a hot spring 200 metres beneath the US state of
Idaho. Their lives owe nothing to the Sun. They generate energy by combining
hydrogen from rocks with carbon dioxide, releasing methane as a by-product.
These 'methanogens' belong to an ancient group related to bacteria, called
the Archaea.
Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa have both been suggested as places where life
could exist on hydrogen, today or in the past.
Full story here:
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020114/020114-7.html
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