Yeast and E. coli can grow in conditions that might exist on alien planets
scientists at MIT discovered that both yeast and E. coli can grow in an environment with an atmosphere composed purely of hydrogen. (Photo by Eric Erbe, digital colorization by Christopher Pooley, both of USDA, ARS, EMU./)Far beyond our solar system, rocky planets with atmospheres dominated by hydrogen gas could potentially support life, indicates a paper published this week in Nature Astronomy. In an experiment involving sealed bottles and some very hardy microbes, scientists at MIT discovered that both yeast and E. coli can grow in an environment with an atmosphere composed purely of hydrogen—that’s a far cry from Earth’s nitrogen and oxygen-rich air that humans and many other lifeforms thrive in. This means that life might be found in a broader array of alien habitats than we’ve previously recognized.When scientists envision habitable alien worlds, they imagine these places as having Earth-like atmospheres dominated by nitrogen or carbon dioxide like those...