Introduction. Organisms That Inhabit Unhospitable Environments

Throughout history humanity has been fascinated by the existence of extraterrestrial life. Today such ventures are in the development process and the discovery of life beyond our solar system, no matter how primitive, may soon become a huge(important?) scientific breakthrough. The three basic things that are required to consider a place even remotely habitable are water, a source of energy, and organic materials. Habitability also depends on other factors that must also be taken into consideration such as how close the planet is to its star (in the case of our solar system, the sun), how long the water and organic materials existed there, and the size and mass of the planet. One must not confuse habitable with inhabited. The term

Prokaryotes are ubiquitous, successfully adapting to diverse environments as well as developing symbiotic relationships with host organisms (Lengeler, Drews, & Schlegel, 1999). Prokaryotes may have both autotrophic and heterotrophic characteristics. A cyanobacteria is photosynthetic, commonly called blue-green algae, and may produce toxins (Crayton, 1993). Bacteria are most commonly associated in the general

Finally there is the Hyperthermophiles. Found in very hot temperatures such as hydrothermal vents in deep oceans. With this said, the two microorganisms that I worked with would be known as Mesophiles. Both of these microorganisms grow on or in the human body. They prefer moist heat that is body temperature. I made an incubation box to help mimic the temperatures needed. Typically trying to maintain the temperature of thirty seven degrees Celsius.

Extremophiles are organisms that have been discovered on earth that survive in environments that were thought to not be able to sustain life

The title of my paper is called, “Life on Another Planet.” The purpose of my essay is to explore the question of do aliens exist? I explained the possibilities that there could be other life out there in space. My conclusion was that in the future scientists could discover a planet where we can move to and live in, and even meet new species of life. As a result, scientists should develop more tools

The discovery of water in the Orion Nebula will undoubtedly provide the basis for further study. More specifically, it will prompt scientists to search for water in other regions of space at different stages of star formation. Then, if water is present in each, it may suggest that "the oceans of Earth are older than even the planet that now contains them." 7

As scientists, particularly astrobiologists, learn more about life on Earth our perception of is habitable is changing 7. The discovery of life living my mid ocean ridge geothermal vents in the 1970’s is a classic example of this. Before it was thought that life could not exist without light from the sun. By these geothermal vents organisms exist, completely cut off from other ecosystems. These vents are often thousands of kilometers below sea level and most receive no light from the sun. They also exist under a high pressure environment. Some of these organisms, or extremophiles, are complex organisms that feed off the minerals emitted from the vent in a process called

Hypersaline environments constitute typical examples of environments with extreme conditions due to their high salinity, exposure to high and low temperatures, low oxygen conditions and in some cases, high pH values. Bacteria and Archaea are the most widely distributed organisms in these

Arthrobacter is a dominant genus of bacteria found in soil from all over the world. Several species are even found in places as inhospitable as the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica (Zeglin et al. 2009). This presence in habitats all across the world is made possible because of the extreme adaptability of their genomes to a wide range of environmental conditions (Mongodin et al. 2006). Species that are members of this genus are commonly gram positive, obligate aerobes. Arthrobacter species are also chemoorganotrophs and have an oxidative metabolism (Holt et al. 1994).

The most spectacular discovery about Deinococcus radiodurans, the first poly-extremophile bacterium, is that it has developed an incredible amount of unexplainable resistance to radiation. It has remarkable DNA repair mechanisms which cannot be explained just by examining the genome and research seemingly yields no concrete data regarding what infers the resistivity against ionizing radiation. It can withstand at least a thousand times more radiation than a human can, in addition to UV radiation, desiccation, cold and acid. It has no known particular natural habitat as it has been found across a diverse range of environments, including in the Antarctic dry valleys, an environment on Earth that’s thought to closely resemble that of Mars. The microbe contains 4-10 copies of its genome and although the radiation causes extensive breaks in the genome, the microbe is able to utilize unique but poorly-understood DNA repair mechanisms that ensure reasonable fidelity. The genome has been sequenced and a protein has been found within its sequence that confers radiation resistance, RecA. Researchers are looking to take advantage of this protein by genetically engineering D. radiodurans to function in environmental clean-up, to speed up the process as well as reduce the costs. Future prospects of this bacteria include additional selective genetic engineering to metabolize a range of toxic organic compounds and to assess if life is possible in space, specifically on Mars. This bacterium

The atmosphere is a relatively unexplored and unthought of environment for a microbial habitat. Approximately 0.5 to 5.0 billion tons of dust travels in the atmosphere each year throughout the globe or within a particular region (Perkins, 2001). Dust is transported from Africa, other countries with large deserts and contains diverse microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) often containing pathogens. Data presented within the current and past century has shown that microbes are capable of withstanding environments exposing them to desiccation, UV, and other physical stresses, making them a good candidate for airborne global travel. Knowledge of these various microbes is increasing due to concerns over human health and oceanic diseases

Consequently, indicating that in the past there might have favorable conditions for harboring microbial life such as extremophiles. This finding supports claim that there was presence of water in the Columbia Hills as predicted by NASA’s research team. Follow the water approach is vital to finding life both past or present on any extraterrestrial planets through our understanding on how life works here on Earth.

Thermophiles are a type of microorganism which belongs to extremophiles. These types of micro-organisms are adapted to survive and live under extreme high temperatures range from 41 to 122 degree Celsius and are split into 3 sub-levels: simply thermophile, extreme thermophiles, and hyperthermophiles which are in ascending order of temperature. They are normally found in the space that has geological activities which produce habitats with high temperatures like hot spring and volcanic vents. Thermophiles have developed many adaptive strategies to help it to survive under extreme hot environments. Two basic strategies for them to survive are extrinsic stabilization (using certain small molecules) and intrinsic stabilization (using self-contained enzymes). These two strategies help them to avoid the thermal denaturation of their enzymes which are essential for surviving. Their energy supply is typically coming from organic compounds that are provided by geological activities. They ferment these organic compounds and turn them into chemical energy.

The effect of environmental factors such as temperature, osmotic pressure, oxygen concentration and pH on microbial growth and survival

Microbes, Bio-Diversity and Overall Plant Health and How They Relate to Long Term Space Life Support Systems