Ultra-small microbes exhibit extreme survival skills in Ethiopia's Mars-like wonderland

The first study of ultra-small bacteria living in the extreme environment of Ethiopia's Dallol hot springs shows that life can thrive in conditions similar to those thought to have been found on the young planet Mars. An international team of researchers lead by Dr. Felipe Gómez from Astrobiology Center in Spain (CAB (CSIC-INTA)) has found a strain of the Nanohaloarchaeles Order bacteria embedded in samples taken from a salt chimney deposited by supersaturated water at temperatures of 89 degrees Celsius and at the extremely acidic pH of 0.25.

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