Microbes found in one of Earth’s most hostile places, giving hope for life on Mars

A hardy community of bacteria lives in Chile’s Atacama Desert—one of the driest and most inhospitable places on Earth—where it can survive a decade without water, new research confirms. The work should put to rest the doubts of many scientists, who had suggested that previous evidence of microscopic life in this remote region came from transient microbes. And because the soils in this location closely resemble those on Mars, these desert dwellers may give hope to those seeking life on the Red Planet’s similarly hostile surface.
Read more: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/microbes-found-one-earth-s-most-hostile-places-giving-hope-life-mars?source=Snapzu