/channels/taxonomy/term/7942/all en /channels/channels/news/blueprint-life-mars-340250 <p>Lost Hammer Spring, in Nunavut in Canada’s High Arctic, is one of the coldest and saltiest terrestrial springs discovered to date. The water which travels up through 600 metres of permafrost to the surface is extremely salty (~24% salinity), perennially at sub-zero temperatures (~−5 °C) and contains almost no oxygen (<1ppm dissolved oxygen). The very high salt concentrations keep the Lost Hammer spring from freezing, thus maintaining a liquid water habitat even at sub-zero temperatures.</p> Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:49:27 +0000 webfull 180822 at /channels /channels/channels/news/life-could-exist-mars-today-very-close-surface-302609 <p>Scientists tackle the question of what kinds of life might reside now on the Red Planet, and how we might find it.</p> <p>Last week NASA convened a visionary meeting in New Mexico to consider a topic critical to astrobiology—whether life currently exists on Mars, and if so, how to detect it. The site of the conference was near the world-renowned Carlsbad Caverns, which attendees got to visit during a mid-conference workshop.</p> Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:22:50 +0000 webfull 155451 at /channels /channels/channels/news/search-life-mars-begins-mcgills-macdonald-campus-285348 <p>It’s a question that has long plagued humanity: are we alone in the universe?</p> <p>Scientists at ���ϲ�����’s Macdonald campus are venturing towards a definitive answer with the development of a biosignature or life-detection platform.</p> <p>...“There are some indications that Mars, many billions of years ago, was much warmer – and much wetter,” explained <strong>Lyle Whyte</strong>, a ���ϲ����� professor. “Where it would have been an environment that we can envision it would have hosted life as we know on Earth.”</p> Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:48:15 +0000 webfull 135710 at /channels /channels/news/antarctic-permafrost-may-not-be-habitable-microbes-%E2%80%93-so-mars-258090 <p> </p> <p>"It doesn't mean there's no life on Mars, but what it does mean is it's going to be harder to find," said Jacqueline Goordial, the ���ϲ����� University researcher who led the study, in an interview with Rachelle Solomon on CBC's Breakaway.</p> Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:48:25 +0000 webfull 115475 at /channels /channels/news/refining-search-life-mars-257486 <p> </p> <p>The results of a recent experiment at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron in Saskatoon could be a key piece in the quest to discover if there was ever life on Mars.</p> <p>Lyle Whyte, an environmental microbiologist at ���ϲ����� University who is originally from Saskatchewan, specializes in organisms that can survive in extreme cold.</p> <h3><a href="http://thestarphoenix.com/technology/science/refining-the-search-for-life-on-mars">Read article in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix</a></h3> <p> </p> Mon, 21 Dec 2015 15:36:50 +0000 webfull 114790 at /channels