Theoretical origin of life; aged subterranean extremophiles (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 10, 2019, 16:10 (2024 days ago) @ dhw

https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2018/12/scientists-reveal-a-massive-biosphere-of-life-h...

QUOTE: "An incredibly vast “dark biosphere” of subterranean lifeforms scientists are hardly beginning to comprehend and observe exists deep within the Earth, as a recent study explored.
"Where they say life theoretically shouldn’t even exist, the oldest and deepest organisms on the planet thrive, apparently just still surviving buried deep within the lost layers of our planet. In this recently released research, scientists have taken some measurements of the microbial world’s “dark matter” in a way that has reportedly never before been seen.

dhw: Thank you for this amazing article. I wonder if there might not be similar life forms hidden away on other apparently inhospitable planets. They would obviously not be detectable by instruments currently at our disposal, but eventually we shall find out either way, and it will certainly raise lots of questions for our descendants. I fear that by then you and I will not be around to discuss them!

More to the point, the demonstrated very early arrival of life on the surface, less than a billion years after Earth's formation, seems to indicate an imperative for Earth to be life's home.