Scientists say the findings help explain how life can exist in extreme environments, using compound methane, a compound, instead of sunlight.
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A new study found strange animals that get energy from chemical reactions instead of the sun at the bottom of an oceanic trenches up to 31,000 feet deep in the northwest Pacific Ocean between Russia and Alaska.
Scientists say the discoveries used compound methane, a compound, instead of sunlight, to shed new light on the potential of life in extreme environments. The animal was discovered by researchers using a human-wrapped diving vehicle.
“It is not just the depths that make our discoveries groundbreaking, but the incredible abundance and diversity of the chemical synthesis lives we observed,” said Mengrand Du, a marine geochemist at the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published on July 30.
The authors suggest that similar communities may be more widespread than previously thought, and their findings challenge their views on how ecosystems are supported. “Even living in the most harsh environments, I have found that these life forms survive and thrive,” Du said.
For some, the findings encourage questions about the possibility of finding life on other planets.
“Because chemical species such as methane and hydrogen are common, it suggests that similar chemical synthesis communities may also exist in extraterrestrial oceans,” said Xiaotong Peng, a marine geologist and research co-author.
Can this kind of life be found on other planets?
Du told USA Today that similar chemically synthesized forms could be found in Moon Europe on Jupiter or Moon Enceladus on Saturn.
According to NASA, Europe may be the most likely.
“There is very strong evidence that the components of life exist in Europe,” said Bonnie Bratty, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Institute, who was not part of the study.
At the bottom of the European oceans, where water meets rocky mantles, there may be heat veins through which heat releases chemical energy. “They may resemble the heat of the Earth’s deep oceans where primitive life exists and life could have been born on Earth,” Bratty said.
Europa Clipper will teach you more
NASA hopes that the European Clipper spacecraft will help determine whether (European) underground oceans have habitable environments.
She added that seeking a similar environment in Europe is the first step in answering questions about undersea life on other planets and the moon, as the current idea is that life is born at the depths of the Earth’s oceans.
“Europe is the first ocean world to be studied in great detail. Other bodies in the solar system, such as Titan, Enceladus, perhaps Ganimede, Uto Pun, and even many exoplanets and exomones, can have habitable environments similar to those on Earth,” she told the United States. “After we got results from Europa Clipper from 2030, we know more.”
On Earth, amazing deep sea tube worms and clams
Researchers discovered the animal kingdom (controlled by tubeworms and clams) during a series of dives to the bottom of the Krill Kamchatka and Aleutian groove.
The ecosystem was discovered deeper than the height of Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth. The deepest one was 31,276 feet below sea level in the Kuril-Kamchatka ditch. This was nearly 25% deeper than such animals had previously been recorded anywhere on Earth.
This environment contains “the deepest and most extensive chemical synthesis community known to exist on our planet.”
The study reported that organisms like these living in extreme environments need to adapt to produce energy in a variety of ways. Known as the “chemical bond-based community,” they derive energy from chemical reactions rather than photosynthesis, which requires sunlight.
Such communities are located in deep-sea habitats where chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide and methane penetrate from the seabed, according to research.
Contribution: Reuters
