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Vancouver Sun: Arctic microbes bolster hopes of life on Mars

Published: 5 June 2010

A team of Canadian scientists has discovered "unique," methane-eating microbes living in a cold, super-salty spring on Nunavut's Axel Heiberg Island, proof that similar organisms could have survived in such inhospitable conditions on ancient Mars - and could even live on the Red Planet today. The discovery of the gas-gobbling bacteria at the Lost Hammer Spring on one of Canada's northernmost islands is described in the latest issue of the ISME Journal, published by the International Society for Microbial Ecology. The Canadian find bolsters the theory that methane plumes recently discovered on Mars by a NASA orbiter could harbour microscopic life forms that are energized by the gas and can withstand the planet's freezing temperatures. "If you have a situation where you have very cold salty water, it could potentially support a microbial community, even in that extreme harsh environment," McGill University microbiologist Lyle Whyte said in a summary of the new study.

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