Okuma AnlamaSoru #11122
Life in the Deep Biosphere
For decades, biologists assumed that life was largely restricted to Earth's surface and the sunlit layers of the ocean. However, deep scientific drilling programs into continental rocks and oceanic crust have revealed a subterranean realm known as the "deep biosphere." Thousands of meters beneath the surface, under crushing lithostatic pressures and scorching temperatures exceeding one hundred degrees Celsius, billions of microorganisms flourish. Deprived of solar photons and atmospheric oxygen, these lithoautotrophic bacteria and archaea subsist on chemical energy released by serpentinization—a reaction between groundwater and minerals—and the radioactive decay of deep crustal isotopes. Remarkably, many of these subsurface microbes possess sluggish metabolic rates, dividing only once every several thousand years, effectively operating in near-geological timescales. The discovery of the deep biosphere is particularly significant for astrobiology because it suggests that ----.
- A)microbial life could potentially thrive deep beneath the frozen surfaces of Mars or icy moons like Europa
- B)planets must possess breathable oxygen atmospheres in order to support any life
- C)complex mammalian life forms can easily evolve inside subterranean volcanic magma
- D)interplanetary space travel is impossible without drilling into asteroids
- E)solar energy is the only viable metabolic power source in the entire cosmos
Cevabı ve çözümü göster
Doğru cevap: A) microbial life could potentially thrive deep beneath the frozen surfaces of Mars or icy moons like Europa
Çözüm: Güneş ışığı ve oksijen olmadan kaya-su tepkimeleriyle yaşamın sürebilmesi, Mars veya Europa gibi buzlu gökcisimlerinin yeraltı okyanuslarında ve kabuklarında yaşam olabileceği fikrini güçlendirir. Doğru cevap A'dır.