Over the past five years, astrobiologists has continuously gathered and discovered numerous evidence to come to this conclusion: “There’s possible life somewhere out there.” They have discovered organisms living in places once considered extreme and uninhabitable. These bacteria, bacteria-like, and microbial organisms are considered extremophiles. No one really expected to find organisms living under such extreme environments, under such extreme conditions, which really suggest that there is possible life out there in the universe, possibly in some other planets, galaxies, or worlds.( Since in some cases, the most un-expecting one is the most likely.)
If extremophiles can thrive under extreme environments on Earth, then couldn’t theses microbial life live under there similar environments on other places in this universe? As astrobiologists take closer looks into the world of our solar system, there are many evidence for conditions that could support extremophiles. As a result, Earth tends to set as an example, proving that there is life elsewhere.
Extremophiles not only tolerate extreme conditions, but they require them for growth. Also, many types of extremophiles would certainly die if they were place in the sort of conditions like us. Extremophiles can withstand from the hottest environment to the coldest, most acidic, deepest, highest radiation, highest pressure or the saltiest.
Extremophiles can be found in places around the world. One of the most active areas of exploring for extremophiles microbes is in the skeletons of beached or dead whales in their natural cold environments. Whales and seals have a very slow decay rate, particularly in polar regions, and because of their very thick layers of blubber, also spawn a community of bacteria that break down fats. Archea tends to thrive in extreme hot environments such as volcanic vents and acidic hot springs. These organisms can live without sunlight or organic carbon as food, and instead survive on sulfur , hydrogen, and other materials that normal organisms can’t metabolize. These are just some of the extremophiles that you can easily find.
By the nature of extremophiles, an extreme environment must be duplicated for optimal growth. If taken out from its environment, the extremophiles can't cope with their new adaptation so they will die. The word “phile” in Greek word philia means “love”. The extremophiles love to live in extreme conditions. If properly handled, most microbes can be successfully freeze- dried and revived,( a process called lyophilization). Relatively recent findings in the last twenty years holds that there are three major families or branches on Earth’s tree of life. Depending originally on the presence of a cell nucleus, a first division split the tree into two branches called the eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The prokaryotes are the bacteria , while the eukaryotes are the so-called higher forms of life, including humans, plants, and animals. When genetic comparisons became more comprehensive, the third branch called archaea was decided to be sufficiently different to qualify as an independent super kingdom on Earth. Eukaryotes put their genes inside a nucleus, while the prokaryotes don’t. Archaea also doesn’t have a nucleus. Archaea are thought to have a common ancestor with bacteria, but, billion of years ago the third domain, eukaryotes, broke off from archea.
Archaea include microbes that live at the extreme of the plants- the very, very cold ,hot, or high-pressure places that no other form of life can withstand. Archaea are the extremophiles who thrive at certain areas, where no other life form can possibly exist or tolerate. Archaea may represent the earliest forms of life and maybe the most likely form of life existing on other planets. About 500 species of archaea are now identified , but there maybe a million others. This life form is thought to produce about 30% of the biomass on Earth, much of it is in the Antarctic Ocean.