Under Untersee: A diver collects specimens from stromatolites, conelike mounds designed by bacterium, on the ground of Antarctica’s Lake Untersee. © 2011 vale T. author - http://daleandersen.seti.org
Scientists recently dove into Lake Untersee, an oversized fresh lake in Antarctic continent, and discovered fields of conelike mounds on the lake floor. tho' they appear like spooky, alien traffic cones, these mounds aren’t the work of extraterrestrials. The scientists say the cones, known as stromatolites, were designed by bacterium, and also the construction project in all probability took thousands of years.
“We had ne'er seen something like that,” vale author told Science News. “It completely blew North American country away.”
Andersen could be a research worker at the SETI Institute in Mountain read, Calif. He studies organisms that sleep in extreme environments, and he braved Lake Untersee’s frigid waters to check the bacteria-built stromatolites and lead a study on them. By learning life in harsh places, scientists like author hope to be told additional regarding life generally.
Over the years, researchers have discovered organisms that may survive in stunning environments not in contrast to the hostile conditions on different planets. Lake Untersee, as an example, is super-cold associate degreed contains an abundance of a compound known as paraffin. These same conditions — cold and much of paraffin — conjointly describe several of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
Kind of Blue: Stromatolites on the ground of associate degree Antarctic lake area unit bathed in blue light-weight. © 2011 vale T. author http://daleandersen.seti.org
Stromatolites area unit a number of the oldest signs of life on our planet. bacterium started building these structures billions of years agone. Scientists study the fossilised remains of these ancient mounds for clues to however the earliest organisms survived. The underwater discovery in Antarctic continent gave the researchers some way to look back in time to the start of life on our planet.
“It’s like going back to early Earth,” Dawn sociologist told Science News. Sumner, WHO conjointly worked on the new study, could be a man of science at the University of Calif., Davis. “These area unit simply unbelievably stunning microbic landscapes,” she says. bacterium area unit a sort of microorganism, or extraordinarily little organism.
Scientists recognize of solely many places on Earth wherever stromatolites develop. author and his team say those at rock bottom of Lake Untersee have uncommon shapes and sizes. The lake’s stromatolites area unit large: some stand a couple of foot and a 0.5 tall. They’re created largely of true bacteria, that area unit the earliest legendary life-form on Earth. Like plants, true bacteria convert daylight to food within the method known as chemical process.
The read From Above: to a lower place the frigid surface of Antarctica’s Lake Untersee area unit mounds designed by ancient bacterium.
The team has explored different lakes in Antarctic continent however hasn’t found identical stromatolites. every lake is different: Some have a thicker ice cowl, that affects what proportion daylight reaches the water and also the organisms to a lower place the surface. The chemical makeup of the water can also vary from lake to lake. So far, the researchers don’t recognize what makes Lake Untersee a cheerful home for tall stromatolites.
