Dark oxygenITG 1737778471181

4,000 meters down: A discovery in the Pacific that may change our search for alien life

Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh

image

Representative pic

dark oxygen deep oceanITG 1737778802600

Dark Oxygen

Oxygen was found deep in the Pacific seabed, produced without sunlight, in a groundbreaking study led by Professor Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

Representative pic

image

Metallic Rocks

Sweetman’s team discovered that manganese and cobalt-rich rocks release oxygen through electrolysis, a process that challenges traditional views of oxygen production.

Credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty Images

Deep ocean studyITG 1737778907586

Deep Study

The team has secured $2.7 million in funding from the Nippon Foundation for a three-year study to explore how these deep-sea processes occur at depths of up to 11,000 meters.

Representative pic

image

Global Phenomenon

Microbiologist Emil Ruff, who studied oxygen production in lightless Canadian freshwater, suggests such processes might occur in other remote environments globally.

Credit: Marine Biological Laboratory

microbialITG 1735710620781

Life Support

Ruff’s findings show that dark oxygen supports microbial life in extreme conditions, hinting at how life could survive in environments previously thought uninhabitable.

Representative pic

IcymoonITG 1737779168934

NASA’s Interest

NASA is closely monitoring Sweetman’s findings, exploring how similar processes could support life on icy moons like Europa and Enceladus, where sunlight is absent.

Deep sea researchITG 1737779354311

Mining Threat

The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where Sweetman’s discovery was made, faces risks from deep-sea mining, which could destroy ecosystems producing dark oxygen.

Representative pic

image

Ecosystem Risk

Critics warn that mining for metals like cobalt, essential for green technologies, could irreparably harm microbial communities critical to these discoveries.

Representative pic

Space Frontier

Sweetman’s work could redefine our understanding of survival beyond Earth, influencing future missions to search for life in extreme conditions on other planets.

Representative pic