Do Deep-Sea Microbes Offer A Glimpse Of What Alien Life Could Be Like On A Jupiter Moon?
James Holden, chief scientist of the most recent oceanographic cruise of the research vessel, Atlantis, and its deep-sea submersible, Alvin, says he felt like a witness to a time more than three billion years ago before oxygen was present in the atmosphere and before photosynthesis, peering at what microbial life may have been like when the Earth was young. Or, the scene might be a window to the future, when astronauts will look for life near underwater volcanoes believed to exist in the huge ocean on a moon of Jupiter, Europa. In a paper published this week in the January issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology describing previous work at this site, Holden, with UMass Amherst doctoral student Helene Ver Eecke, and University of Washington oceanographer Deborah Kelley, describe the abundance of three anaerobic microorganisms that grow optimally near 200 degrees F, along with their habitat requirements, based on samples taken near several black smokers. To go down to these under
