The Most Extreme Life-Forms in the Universe
Research shows that life can be found in the unlikeliest of places.
June 30, 2008 — -- While scientists find ever more planets around other stars and contemplate missions to probe the far reaches of our own solar system, researchers are looking to the extremes of the Earth for clues about what kind of organisms could exist in the brutal conditions elsewhere.
There's hardly a niche on Earth that hasn't been colonised. Life can be found in scalding, acidic hot pools, in the driest deserts, and in the dark, crushing depths of the ocean. It has even found a toehold in the frigid polar regions and in toxic dumps.
"Life on Earth has radiated into every conceivable – and in some cases almost inconceivable – ecological niche," says Chris Impey of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US.
The very existence of these hardy organisms hints that life might be able to eke out an existence in the cold, dry climate of Mars, the icy, acidic conditions of Jupiter's moon Europa, or in countless other spots beyond our solar system.
So here are some of Earth's toughest organisms – although the record-setters are subject to debate.
Some Like It Hot
Steaming hot pools and scalding undersea hydrothermal vents provide a cosy habitat for heat-loving extremists.
Such 'thermophiles' produce enzymes that are stable at high temperatures. Some have been isolated and put to work in everything from laundry detergents to food production.
The upper limit for life had been widely recognised as 113 °Celsius, thanks to a microbe called Pyrolobus fumari that was discovered in 1997 inside a single hydrothermal vent in the Atlantic Ocean, 3650 metres below the surface.
However, a microbe collected from a vent in what's known as the Faulty Towers neighbourhood, 2400 metres down in the Pacific Ocean, has upped the ante.
It survived – and multiplied, scientists say – during a 10-hour blast in a 121 °C autoclave, an oven used to sterilise medical equipment. Researchers finally managed to kill the hardy microbe by cranking the temperature up to 130 °C. It's been given the preliminary name of "Strain 121" and is in the same family as Pyrolobus fumari.
