Community | March 16, 2010 | 10 comments

One Shrimp Opens Door to Extraterrestrial Life In the Solar System

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi-RrKjaeA&feature=player_embedded#

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pjacobs51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi-RrKjaeA&feature=player_embedded#

One three-inch shrimp—happily swimming under 600 feet of ice, 12.5 miles from open water—has shattered all scientists' theories on life-harboring environments. An impossible discovery that opens the possibility of complex extraterrestrial life in our Solar System:

We were operating on the presumption that nothing's there. It was a shrimp you'd enjoy having on your plate. We were just gaga over it.
Those are the words of NASA's Robert Bindschadler. Until now, scientists thought that only microbial life could live under these conditions. Stacy Kim—one of the biologists in NASA's ice science team—says that they don't really have a clue about what is happening down there, but that it is highly improbable that these animals swam all the way from open water.

They are looking at the equivalent of a drop of water in a swimming pool that you would expect nothing to be living in and they found not one animal but two. We have no idea what's going on down there. It's pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything.

Kim affirms that it's unlikely that this is an statistical anomaly, and thinks that there should be plenty of complex life forms down there, even while they don't have a clue about how these creatures could survive under these conditions.

The most important consequence of this discovery, however, is the impact on the search for complex life forms in other planets and moons in our own Solar System. Could this mean that we would be able find complex lifeforms under the seas of Europa? We don't know, but at least now this may be a possibility. The most important question, however, is: Would the shrimps in Europa get pissed off when they learn that we like to eat Earth shrimps grilled with sea salt?

[NASA via AP]



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi-RrKjaeA&feature=player_embedded#
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10 comments // One Shrimp Opens Door to Extraterrestrial Life In the Solar System

  • Saladin
  • NuclearLullaby
  • Bill_Lambertson
    • -1
      Bill_Lambertson  

    • "It's pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything."

      Little Shrimp: Swim away! Hide! Don't encourage the 'curious' scientists!

      Humans: DO NOT go to Galapagos anymore. Back slowly away from the 'unexplored ecosystems' and leave them intact ... is nothing sacred?

      Scientists and interested lay people: Research (or simply: institute) methods for a drastic reduction in the human population which by its exponentially increasing existence is ultimately destructive to itself and all life that we are inevitably connected with. We imagine that we are 'privileged observers' and therein lies the core issue. To 'understand' something means to exploit it as a food source, tear apart its ecosystem or use its 'strange' existence to justify further research into possible extraterrestrial life in the solar system? This is madness!

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
    • -1
      Saladin  
    • Bill_Lambertson:

      "Understanding" is exploitation? Oh boy. Better get off your computer then if it's such an awful thing.

      You're about 2 million years too late to encourage mankind to not use technology. Have fun returning to hunter-gathering society, we're all gonna go explore space. By the way, you're not allowed to farm or use tools because they "exploit" the natural world, good luck with that.

    • 1 year ago
  • Bill_Lambertson
    • 0
      Bill_Lambertson  
    • Saladin:

      I do not equate understanding with exploitation, nor an I a Luddite. I see an historical track record of human exploitation of the resources (sentient and non-sentient) that it 'studies'. Saladin ended this discussion when he revealed his made up his mind (read: jumped to the erroneous conclusion) imagining that I belong to the anti-progress/destroy technology tribe. How thrilling it must be for you ('we're all going to explore space') to contemplate the thought of life on Europa while human engendered destruction continues here on Earth. Have a good time with your new NASA friends! Hold on - not a NASA astronaut? Close friends with Richard Branson, perhaps? Or: stuck down here at the bottom of the gravity well with the rest of us. Life is so unfair.

    • 1 year ago
  • Saladin
  • marQueso
  • Peacey
  • Ragan
  • bailey78
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