Life On Other Planets?

This is an interesting article. My mind latched onto a great idea for a new SFR story. And my heroine's career is already in the making...



Clues to Alien Life                                         




Galan Volcano, Argentina

A lake in Argentina's remote, inhospitable northwest may offer clues to how life got started on Earth and how it could survive on other planets, scientists say.

Researchers have found millions of "super" bacteria thriving inside the oxygen-starved Lake Diamante, in the center of a giant volcanic crater located over 15,400 feet above sea level.

The bacteria's habitat is similar to primitive earth, before living and breathing organisms began wrapping a protective atmosphere of oxygen around the planet.

The conditions -- which include high arsenic and alkaline levels -- could also shed light on life beyond Earth.

"This is of great scientific interest as a window to look to our past and also for a science called Astrobiology, the study of life on other planets," said Maria Eugenia Farias, part of the team that discovered the life-forms in Lake Diamante earlier this year.