Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, finding microbial life almost 4 meters below the surface of the driest hot desert on Earth. This discovery, detailed in a study published in PNAS Neux, has profound implications for the search for extraterrestrial life, particularly on Mars, which shares similar environmental conditions.

The Atacama Desert is known for its extreme dryness and difficult living conditions, where higher life forms are almost non-existent. However, the subsurface of this desert is proving to be a sanctuary for microbial life, which is thriving against all odds. The authors of the new study dug more than four meters deep into the Yungay Valley playa to explore the life forms that exist far below the surface.

To ensure the accuracy of their findings, the researchers developed a new DNA extraction method. This process involved first washing loose DNA and then extracting DNA from intact cells for sequencing. This meticulous approach allowed them to identify and analyze the microbial communities that reside at different depths.

Astonishing Discovery – Researchers Discover Life 13 Feet Below Earth’s Most Inhospitable Desert
In a discovery with implications for the search for extraterrestrial life, scientists have uncovered microbial life 13 feet beneath the surface of the Atacama Desert, Earth’s most inhospitable desert. The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest hot desert in the world. Higher life forms are a
SciTechDailyColin Collins

The study revealed that the microbial communities in the top 80 centimeters of soil were predominantly made up of Firmicutes. However, at depths of more than 200 centimeters, a distinct microbial community dominated by Actinobacteria was discovered.

Some of these bacteria were genetically similar to known species, such as Geodermatophilus pulveris and Modestobacter caceresii. The researchers suggest that these microbial communities may have originally colonized the soil around 19,000 years ago and were subsequently buried by playa deposits over time, explains SciTech Daily.

The findings indicate that these deep microbial communities may extend indefinitely downwards, forming a previously unknown deep biosphere beneath the hyper-arid desert soils. This deep bacterial community may depend on gypsum to obtain water, a mineral also found in abundance on Mars. This connection raises exciting possibilities about the existence of life on Mars, since gypsum deposits could also harbor or support microbial life.

This discovery not only broadens our understanding of the resilience of life in Earth's most extreme environments, but also increases the prospect of finding life on other planets.