Mineral-eating intraterrestrial bacteria may give clues on extraterrestrial life - MINING.COM - MINING.com
A former gold mine in South Dakota is giving scientists clues as to how colonies of bacteria living in the continental deep subsurface and feeding out of minerals spread out and form biofilms, which are microbial coatings of the rock surface.
Extraterrestrial life could exist in subsurface iron and sulphur-rich environments similar to that of the Deep Mine Microbial Observatory.According to Casar, these results demonstrate that host rock mineralogy is a key driver of biofilm distribution, which could help improve estimates of the microbial distribution of the Earth’s deep continental subsurface. In the researcher’s view, extraterrestrial life could exist in subsurface iron and sulphur-rich environments similar to that of DeMMO’s rock formations, where the microorganisms are protected from both radiation and extreme temperatures.