But we've seen this before. Some more tests are needed to confirm it.
Posted 01.29.2013 at 3:00 pm
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Alien Ground
Scientists could use microbes found in Vostok, Whillans and ellsworth, three subglacial lakes in Antarctica, to create DNA probes and biosignature models to be used by future search-for-life missions in our solar system
Kevin Hand
One of a few research teams hoping to find life in Antarctica seems to be a little closer to success. As Discover reports, the researchers at the subglacial Lake Whillans has taken a sample, and preliminary tests say they've found life!
Now for the caveat: It's important to focus on the word preliminary here. Nothing's conclusive just yet. DNA-sensitive dye made cells in a sample glow green when placed under a microscope, but we've seen that sort of thing before: Last year, other Antarctic researchers thought they had found life, only to discover that it was actually bacteria from their own kerosene supplies. Dead cells can show up in the researchers' test, too, so to make it official, they'll have to work through more time-intensive tests, where the cells grow.
If the team does discover life, it's big news for space exploration. The reason so many teams have been clamoring to find life in Antarctica is because the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are similar environments. If we know how to find life in our backyard, we might be able to find it in outer space.
[Discover]
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They are hoping to find life on a gas giants Jupiter and Saturn?
Prior to even looking for life on Jupiter or Saturn, I really be impress if we are able to send a probe into Jupiter or Saturn and send results ( a radio single of any kind) back to Earth in the first place. They both have some extremely hostile environments!
So unless it swims around in a dish or jumps up and hugs your face, we don't actually know how to find life even right here on Earth?
I did not know that.
Good observations killerT.
"...If we know how to find life in our backyard, we might be able to find it in outer space..."
Perhaps they should stop making pay checks to these scientist for it would be fraud to pay a dead guy or should I say, an unproven alive guy, lol.
@robot,
They are not hoping to find life on the gas giants but on their moons.
African Rover,
D'Oh, ha ha, you’re right.... and yes there are a few moons out there in our solar system that look promising for life!
"Now for the caveat: It's important to focus on the word preliminary here. Nothing's conclusive just yet.".... i love articles that tell me.... scientists are still looking for life in extreme environments.
follow me on twitter @coenga92
Crej,
To listen to scientist, it is often said of the great possibility of finding intelligent life all through the cosmos currently and with local hope we may find some kind of bacteria or small life in our solar system.
But then bring of the possibility of past visitations to Earth by aliens and the room goes quiet......
Yea, sure anybody can carve 2000 ton granite stones, move them long distances and put them exactly in place with copper tools or rock hammers..... lol,.... snort.
The only thing they might end up showing about jupiters moons, is that there is life on earth that might survive there. But there is no reason to believe life already exists there.
They can't even come up with anything close to a working model on how life started here. Why do they even think it's possible?
There are more types of life then have been imagined by humans. Life is everywhere, people as a species are largely unaware of life in the electromagnetic spectrum.
What about all those things in the mirror; are they alive, too?
LOL
I don't see the relationship to life on other planets. I don't think there are any known planets or moons with an ice-covered fresh water lake, are there?
It always seems that these "scientific discoveries" of potential life in harsh environments based on circumstantial evidence, tend to coincide with proposed cuts in government funding. It seems a bit too convenient that a NASA-funded project finds "evidence" of life in an isolated Antarctic lake right at the same time that NASA's budget is being cut.