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Lifeforms which have been living inside crystals for up to 60,000 years have been revived by NASA, raising hopes that alien organisms could be found in extreme environments on other planets.
Penelope Boston, the director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, and her team have spent years exploring Mexico's Naica Mine in Chihuahua looking for extremophiles, which contain caves as large as cathedrals.
The mine is filled with giant gypsum crystals which look so extraordinary that when Dr Boston first saw a picture, she assumed it had was a Photoshop hoax.
But more astounding, was that inside the crystals, tiny bugs were discovered in a state of 'geolatency' - where living organisms remain viable in geological materials for long periods of time.
meaning the diversity we have here is not all related to each other
originally posted by: Outlier13
We humans are nothing more than a mathematical probability.
originally posted by: Tempter
originally posted by: Outlier13
We humans are nothing more than a mathematical probability.
And if we are a mathematical probability can you tell me how probable we'd be on another planet with a different experience?
There's nothing probable about us. Life is exceptional.
originally posted by: rickymouse
Well, if this is the case, then something could have come to this planet from elsewhere trapped in crystals to start life too. Or maybe it has been coming here all along, meaning the diversity we have here is not all related to each other.
originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: Outlier13
Pretty extraordinary, as long as none of them are baby Cloverfields, happy days.
It looks like the bacteria could have been dormant at least part of the time they were encased in the crystals, but when Boston’s team brought them back to the lab, they revived them and got them growing again. Because the microbes are consistent genetically with other bacteria found in the cave, the scientists are fairly confident their presence in the crystals is not the result of some external contamination, but that they’ve really been there the whole time. And there is pretty intense, 100 to 400 meters below the surface at temperatures of 45° to 65° Celsius (113° to 149° Fahrenheit). This places the bacteria among the toughest on earth.