New research has shown that the tiny organisms in the oil liquid in the bowels of the earth can help find alien life, hidden in the depths of space . German scientists have discovered microorganisms within the water droplets from an unusual lake in Trinidad and Tobago.
Microbes from the asphalt lake in Trinidad and Tobago prompted scientists to think that such tanks on natural satellites of distant planets, such as titanium, can be a haven for extraterrestrial life. The discovery was made on Lake Peach Lake, located near the town of La Brea in the south-west of the country. Peach Lake is the largest deposit of asphalt in the world. Natural mixture of hydrocarbons, which rises to the surface of the lake, during the solidification forms a crust.
Previously, it was believed that due to the high toxicity of the oil is not necessary to sustain life, which can exist only at the interface of water and oil environments. But a new study has given scientists suggests that microbes can exist even in tiny droplets of water that is contained in the oil.
We found the complex microbial communities that play an important role in the decomposition of oil, – said Professor Rainer Mekenstok of Helmholtz Centre Munich for Environmental Research (HMGU).
According Mekenstoka inside these water droplets inhabit a variety of micro-organisms that break down the oil into various organic substances.
According to Live Science magazine astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University in Pullman, opening his German colleagues increases the chances of detecting life on Titan, the surface of which there are many hydrocarbon lakes.
Measurements were conducted by scientists in the past year have shown that Titancontains about 9000 cubic kilometers of liquid hydrocarbons, which is about 40 times more oil and gas reserves in the world.
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