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San Antonio's Southwest Research Institute has received a $3 million NASA grant to research how life can thrive in harsh environments.
The research will examine Alaska's frozen arctic sand dunes, which are similar to dune fields on Saturn's moon, Titan, and on early Mars.
Researchers will locate nutrient-poor wet zones in the frozen sand dunes and observe how seasons affect the levels of microbes living beneath the surface.
This could give critical insight into how to look for life in the subsurface of other planets and moons.
“While we don’t know much about lifeforms thriving deep inside frozen sand dunes, perched liquid water located high in these dunes that does not seasonally freeze provides a potential oasis for life in an arctic desert and could help us make useful inferences elsewhere,” explained Cynthia Dinwiddie, SwRI staff scientist and the project's lead investigator, as quoted in an official statement. “Life finds a way, even in seemingly inhospitable places.”
