NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA SEEKS ODD ORGANISMS LIVING AT THE UPPER HEAT LIMIT OF LIFE

NASA scientists are planning to use `mini-monster cams' as a bold new step in preparation for the search for extraterrestrial life on moons and planets.

On Sept. 17 – 26, 1999, researchers will conduct an experiment at Yellowstone National Park, WY, in an effort to find tiny multi-cellular organisms that may be living in the Hot Springs. Conventional wisdom says that only single-celled life, such as bacteria, could exist in Yellowstone's boiling waters, according to scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.

"We are hoping to locate multi-cellular organisms living in Hot Springs at temperatures well above the 150 degrees Fahrenheit that scientists now believe to be the upper limit at which that kind of life can exist," said Jonathan Trent, team leader of the Ames Yellowstone expedition.

The main tools Principal Investigator Trent and his team will use to seek "odd" new life forms in the Yellowstone Hot Springs are two special "baitable" salt shaker-size video cameras built by Deep Sea Power and Light, Inc., San Diego, CA. The cameras are in a NASA-designed package including sensors able to detect temperature, acidity, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels as well as depth below the surface.

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