China News Service, Beijing, May 5 (Reporter Sun Zifa) A planetary science research paper recently published by the international scientific journal Nature-Astronomy, a subsidiary of Nature Research, said that microorganisms can survive and grow in a 100% hydrogen atmosphere. This finding indicates that the exoplanet environment in which life can survive may be richer and more diverse than previously thought.
According to astronomers, rocky exoplanets with a mass greater than Earth can maintain a large amount of hydrogen in their atmosphere. Such a hydrogen-rich atmosphere may be broader than the Earth-like atmosphere, making these exoplanet atmospheres easier to detect. It is generally believed that high abundance hydrogen is beneficial to life, but research on the viability of organisms in this environment is relatively scarce.
Corresponding author of the latest research paper, astrophysicist Sara Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues used E. coli and yeast, representing prokaryotes and eukaryotes, respectively, to conduct growth experiments in the laboratory . They exposed the cultured E. coli and yeast to a 100% hydrogen atmosphere, and found that the two could reproduce normally, but the reproduction rate was slower than in the air: E. coli was about 2 times slower, and yeast was about 2.5 times slower. The research team believes that the reason for the slowness is the lack of oxygen.
Nature Research provided press releases to the media that microbes such as E. coli produce various gases, including potential biomarker gases, which can be detected when they have accumulated to a considerable extent. The results of the newly published experimental research papers are expected to help the astronomy community better identify which types of alien environments can carry some form of detectable possible life. (Finish)