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Horizon Education and Media
Lesson 3
From the coldest life on earth, a snow fly called the Himalayan midge, to the hottest life on earth, bacteria-like Sulfolobus, that lives in hot springs, we can find organisms on Earth in all sorts of crazy environments. These organisms are called extremophiles. Extreme means outermost, and philos means loving.
When Dr. Priscu drilled down under Antarctic ice, he found a freshwater lake full of microscopic life. Finding life in this "impossible" place on Earth encouraged NASA scientists to consider that icy Europa might not be so lifeless after all.
Take a look as Dr. Priscu and his team uses pink lasers to melt through the ice in the video Impossible Life Under the Ice.
Science Superpower: Analyzing Data
Science Superpower: Analyzing Data
In order to find out where extremophiles are found on earth, we need to use our third science superpower: analyzing data. We will look at the data of this and any graph step-by-step.
read the title
look carefully at each axis
look at the information within the graph
Reproduced from Shock and Holland (2007). Tap the image to reposition or zoom.
Shock, Everett L., and Melanie E. Holland. "Quantitative habitability." Astrobiology 7.6 (2007): 839-851.
Graph Guide
Graph Guide
Let's break down analyzing the graph into steps so we know what is shown.
The right side axis of the graph shows the temperature in degrees C.
The left side axis explains what these temperatures mean.
The green square contains all the organisms we usually think of as being alive: not too hot and not too cold, not too acid and not to basic.
Each red dot in this graph is a living organism that lives in an extreme environment. Most of the Latin names are of archaea, which are single-celled extremophiles that are similar to bacteria.
The bottom axis is about acidity.
The following image carousel shows some of the organisms that are on the graph. Most of the weird names are of bacteria-like organisms that have colonies that color rocks and water.
"Strain 121" Archaea lookalikes. S. Skorstein, NOAA CC BY SA 2.0
Alvinellid worm. National Science Foundation (University of Delaware College of Marine Studies) Public Domain.
Sulfolobus Archaea. S Yiftah CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solfatara_volcano_Fumarole_6791.JPG
Winter midge (related to Himalaya midge). Owen Strickland. CC BY 4.0 https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/61987956
Picrophilius Archaea at Midway Basin, Yellowstone. Wing-Chi Poon CC BY SA 2.5
Complete the Where is Life assignment on Google Classroom or independently attached.
From the desk of Hannah Robinson
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