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Exploration of deep intraterrestrial microbial life: current perspectives
- h2odragon 5y agoLetting imagination fly: say there's some critters living by different processes, deeper than the 113 degF level that's currently the maximum temp our life has been observed at. Our efforts so far might have scratched the top of their world and pulled up some of their coldest, slowest microbes. Would we be able to recognize it? How would we spot the smashed goo of an ameboid as life, after its cooled, exploded from the pressure difference, and congealed into leftovers? Theses temperatures and pressures are similar to those we use industrially. We have some idea what things do under those conditions, in limited, cleaner contexts. Further down, things are much more energetic and we have less clue how anything might work. The barrier between us and the moon is much less than the barriers between us and anything living a mile or two down.