Alaskan Blood Falls give us new insight on the possibility of life on Mars (and elsewhere)

If you suddenly found yourself in the deserted icy wastelands of Antarctica, you’d naturally expect to find frigid temperatures, countless miles of glaciers, and perhaps the occasional critter here and there. What you probably wouldn’t expect to find, is a waterfall that looks like it’s pouring blood out of the heart of a glacier.

A bloody column of water coming out of a glacier isn’t what you’d expect to see in the frozen land of Antarctica, but if you visit Taylor Glacier, that’s exactly what you’re going to find. At first, scientists thought they were dealing with some sorts of red algae, but further research proved the bloody color was caused by something spectacular.

It turns out a small lake was sealed under Taylor Glacier roughly 2 million years ago. Incredible, isn’t it?!? Actually no, what’s incredible is the glacier acted like a natural time capsule for the ancient microbes living in the lake.

If you think that’s incredible, get a load of this: these primitive lifeforms have so far survived millions of years in an environment that’s entirely devoid of oxygen, light and heat – the three “basic” ingredients for life as we know it. These microbes are the exact sort that composed the “primordial soup” from which all life on Earth evolved.

Think about it: these microbes were able to survive for two million years in the sort of environment that’s about as close as it gets on Earth to an extraterrestrial setting, such as on Mars, or deep underground on one of Jupiter, Saturn or perhaps even Neptune’s moons. These microbes were shown to have survived the exact sorts of inhospitable conditions present on such otherworldly realms.

If that’s not more evidence to make you think life on other planets or astral systems may be possible after all, I don’t know what is. (After all, all we potentially need to discover life elsewhere than on Earth is to A) send a robotic probe there (without it crashing or malfunctioning, which already is tempting the fates) and B) land and dig somewhere specific where we believe there may be a high chance of liquid water below the surface.)

(via The Daily Grail)
Technorati tags: Antarctica · Taylor Glacier · Blood Falls · microbes · primordial soup · extraterrestrial life · discoveries