With good reason. If microbes could live and fossilize in so punishing a place, they might do the same in other hot spots, like now vanished springs on Mars. Similar remains might be left behind where temperatures are low, like frozen lakes on the Martian surface before the planet dried out.
Other scientists are content to speculate. Not Cady. She's collecting samples not only in Yellowstone but also in the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand and the frigid depths of a lake in British Columbia. When astronauts or robot craft finally start hauling home rocks from other planets, those specimens can be compared with Cady's for the tiny thumbprint of life both may contain. The trick, she says, "is knowing what clues to look for."
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Name: Sherry Cady Age: 43 Why critics are taking note: Cady's a leading light in the field of astrobiology — the study of how life forms in the universe |
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Astropaleobiology
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