14 DAY TRIAL // Recent studies of the deep ocean have revealed the existence of a species of microorganisms that can endure in extreme conditions. These organisms provide investigators with a view on how life on other planets or moons might look like
The Saturnine moon Enceladus and the Jovian moon Europa are both covered in a thick crust of ice, below which oceans of liquid water may still endure. If that is the case, then the temperature and pressure levels recorded at those locations would be similar to the ones in Earth's hadal zones.
These regions of the ocean extend from a depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) down to the bottom. Experts also refer to it as the trench zone, or the hadopelagic zone. It's name is derived the fact that the Greek god of the underworld, Hades, always went unseen.
At such immense depths, pressure climbs up to 1 ton per square centimeter, which is the equivalent of about 1000 bar. Yet, recent studies have found the archaebacteria Pyrococcus CH1 endures at depths of about 4,100 meters.
The study was carried out on a mid-Atlantic ridge that featured hydrothermal vents. These are exhausts of sorts, through which hot gases escape from the Earth's mantle upwards. Temperature around these vents can reach several hundred degrees Celsius.
Yet life endures around them still, even at pressure levels 1,000 times higher than at the surface. The organism experts found at the Ashadze site is a piezophilic microorganism, Daily Galaxy reports.
This investigation was coordinated by experts with the Microbiology of Extreme Environments Laboratory, and saw the involvement of scientists at the Institute of Oceanography of Xiamen, in China, and the Earth Science Laboratory.
The extremophilic microorganisms that experts keep discovering while investigating the deep ocean are a clear indication of how lifeforms on Europa or Enceladus might look like. They too may be subjected to tremendous pressure and extreme temperature, and they too could survive.
One thing that researchers learned about life is that it's extremely resilient, and capable of enduring in the harshest of places. These include hydrothermal vents, active volcanic calderas, lakes buried under miles of ice and so on.