• Contact Us
  • Login
Upgrade
Tech News Hero
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
  • Gadgets
  • Social
  • Gaming
  • Mobile
  • PC
  • Internet
  • Security
  • Apps
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Gadgets
  • Social
  • Gaming
  • Mobile
  • PC
  • Internet
  • Security
  • Apps
No Result
View All Result
Tech News Hero
No Result
View All Result
Home Gadgets

Experiment Shows Some Life Can Survive in Exoplanet-Like Conditions

by technewshero
May 6, 2020
in Gadgets
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Artist’s illustration of a rocky exoplanet

Artist’s illustration of a rocky exoplanet
Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC

Single-celled organisms like Escherichia coli and yeast can grow and survive in an atmosphere like the kind theorized to exist on many rocky exoplanets, according to a new paper.

Scientists would love to know whether there’s life elsewhere in the universe, and part of answering that question is determining what an inhabited exoplanet would look like to our telescopes here on Earth. Do these planets have atmospheres like ours? How would the presence of life change these atmospheres? If life can survive in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere like the kind expected to be found on many exoplanets, then scientists may need to broaden their definition of what a life-supporting planet might look like.

“This should open up—continue to push—astronomers on what kinds of planets might be habitable,” the study’s first author and MIT professor Sara Seager told Gizmodo in an email. “We will have so few planets to search for life around, even with our upcoming sophisticated telescopes, that we want to keep options open.”

The team of MIT researchers kicked off colonies of the E. coli bacteria and brewer’s yeast. They incubated the microorganisms in four bottles with different gas concentrations: one with regular air, one with 100 percent hydrogen, one with 100 percent helium, and one with 20 percent carbon dioxide and 80 percent nitrogen. The microorganisms were able to reproduce in all four bottles, but they did so at least twice as quickly in the air than in the other gases, according to the paper published in Nature Astronomy.

It’s no surprise that a microorganism can survive without oxygen—there are plenty of so-called anaerobic organisms living here on Earth. Some microorganisms can survive in the planet’s most extreme environments, such as around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. But, the researchers explain, if microbes can survive a 100 percent hydrogen environment, then they can survive the atmospheres most likely to be found on rocky exoplanets.

G/O Media may get a commission

Astronomers have yet to observe a rocky exoplanet with a hydrogen atmosphere, but they believe that rocky planets with hydrogen atmospheres would be easier to spot and study than those with atmospheres of heavier gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen. They’re pretty sure that they will be able to see these planets and determine the composition of their atmospheres with upcoming telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope. Maybe, based on this most recent study, scientists will be able to see signs of life in these hydrogen-dominated exoplanets, in the form of trace gases emitted by microorganisms.

This doesn’t mean that life definitely exists on such planets, and lab experiments don’t exactly recreate what happens in nature. These E. coli and yeast cells started their lives (and evolved) in Earth’s nitrogen- and oxygen-rich atmosphere. And the conditions in the lab aren’t the same as those on an exoplanet. Actual exoplanet atmospheres would contain a mix of gases due to the chemistry on their surface. In order to maintain a hydrogen-only atmosphere, these exoplanets would either have to be colder than Earth, have stronger gravity at their surface, or have a way to replenish the hydrogen in their atmosphere—and it’s hard to say what effects any of these changes would have on life.

But this study still offers the hope that life could be more diverse than what we see on Earth, and if so, then maybe the next round of telescopes will be able to find it.

Previous Post

Adult Cam Site CAM4 Exposed 10.88 Billion Records Online

Next Post

The future of deep-reinforcement learning, our contemporary AI superhero – TechNewHero

technewshero

technewshero

Related Posts

LG InstaView refrigerator 2021 series features voice recognition and enhanced cooling » Gadget Flow
Gadgets

LG InstaView refrigerator 2021 series features voice recognition and enhanced cooling » Gadget Flow

by technewshero
January 13, 2021
9+ caffeinated gift ideas for your favorite coffee lovers – TechCrunch
Gadgets

9+ caffeinated gift ideas for your favorite coffee lovers – TechCrunch

by technewshero
January 14, 2021
Best smart home gadgets under $200 » Gadget Flow
Gadgets

Best smart home gadgets under $200 » Gadget Flow

by technewshero
January 15, 2021
Apple reportedly testing Intel-beating high core count Apple Silicon chips for high-end Macs – TechCrunch
Gadgets

Apple reportedly testing Intel-beating high core count Apple Silicon chips for high-end Macs – TechCrunch

by technewshero
January 16, 2021
This tiny drone uses an actual moth antenna to sniff out target chemicals – TechNewHero
Gadgets

This tiny drone uses an actual moth antenna to sniff out target chemicals – TechNewHero

by technewshero
December 23, 2020
Next Post
The future of deep-reinforcement learning, our contemporary AI superhero – TechNewHero

The future of deep-reinforcement learning, our contemporary AI superhero – TechNewHero

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Popular

Facebook, Mozilla, and Cloudflare announce new TLS Delegated Credentials standard

November 1, 2019

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Calls for New-Style Regulator for EU

February 19, 2020
BLM Pride Flag and Pride Fist Are Amongst the Most Searched Terms for June on Google

BLM Pride Flag and Pride Fist Are Amongst the Most Searched Terms for June on Google

December 15, 2020

Browse by Category

  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • Gaming
  • Internet
  • Mobile
  • News
  • PC & Laptops
  • Security
  • Social
Tech News Hero

© 2020 Tech News Hero.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Landing Page
  • Buy JNews
  • Support Forum
  • Contact Us

© 2020 Tech News Hero.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?