A region 2-4 meters deep beneath one of the deadliest places on Earth has revealed what could be a “guiding light” for astrobiologists.
Not just a single living organism, but a rich biosphere has been discovered beneath the Atacama Desert in Chile, a land known as the “dead zone” of Earth.
According to Live Science, this hidden world is one of the deepest biospheres found in Atacama, potentially providing information useful for the search for life on Mars.
The “deadly” land of Earth, where extreme organisms were found at a depth of 2-4m – (Photo: GFZ-Potsdam).
The Atacama Desert is known as the “gateway” to space, hosting numerous astronomical observatories.
This region boasts the clearest skies on Earth, with around 300 cloudless days each year. The very low humidity also helps minimize light absorption, especially in the infrared and near-infrared spectrum.
However, this is also what makes Atacama a “dead zone,” enduring the highest ultraviolet radiation equivalent to that of Venus and having almost no water, making it difficult for anything to survive. In other words, the environment here is quite similar to Mars.
Therefore, if something can survive in this desert, it may be akin to a Martian organism.
A team of scientists from the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ-Potsdam, Albrecht von Haller Institute of Plant Sciences, Technical University of Berlin, Leibniz Institute for the Research on Evolution and Biodiversity (Germany), Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, and the University of Antofagasta (Chile) made this discovery.
Published in the scientific journal PNAS, the authors state that these strange organisms live at depths of 2-4 meters beneath Atacama.
This biosphere is dominated by Actinobacteria, a diverse group of bacteria previously found in other extreme environments, including the Arctic, boiling hot springs, and hypersaline seas.
“Little is known about microbial life in deeper sediment layers. The communities described in this study may represent the upper layer of the biosphere deep beneath the hyper-arid desert surface,” the authors write.
The scientists also found Actinobacteria living closer to the surface, as well as a small amount of Firmicutes bacteria, which can withstand high salt concentrations and do not require oxygen to survive.
This discovery not only suggests what we should look for in extraterrestrial arid lands but also contributes to expanding our understanding of how life forms in the universe may exist.
Previously, it was believed that a planet with life must meet many conditions, such as receiving adequate light from its parent star, having a friendly temperature, liquid water, and abundant oxygen…
However, with the increasing discovery of extremophiles on Earth—thanks to modern scientific advancements—our understanding of “habitable zones” may need to be adjusted.
