Non-light based ecosystems and bioastronomy.
The possibility of the existence of life beyond planet Earth has always fascinated humans. However, due to certain circumstances such as the failure of the Viking expeditions to detect any sign of biotic activity on Mars, and the understanding that the presence of life would lead to drastic alterations in the atmosphere of the host planet (alterations that have never been detected on other planets or planetoids of the solar system), the belief that our planet is the only planet to sustain life inside the solar system originated. During the last three decades a series of new complex biological communities have been discovered, in the deep sea, inside caves isolated from the external biosphere, and deep inside the crust of our planet, and found to depend on geothermal energy instead of solar energy for their survival. These discoveries give us new evidence and hope that life might exist not only on other planets, but perhaps even in other planetoids of our solar system. Life may exist in regions other than the surface of a planet, and these areas would be extremely difficult to identify.
Santini
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F
Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Ramsay Wright Zoological Laboratories, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, M5S 3G5, Canada. fsantini@zoo.utoronto.ca
Galleni
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L
D017753:Ecosystem; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment