Unearthing ET

Unearthing ET?

A U of T professor digs for micro-organisms two kilometres deep in Timmins
Her work could yield the secret of life on other planets, Anna Piekarski reports

Aug. 3, 2006. 01:00 AM

ANNA PIEKARSKI

STAFF REPORTER

Rather than looking into deep space, a University of Toronto professor has taken the search for the secret of alien life to the depths of a Timmins mine.

Geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar has received funding from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to study how life might exist on other planets, but she believes the secret may be found underground.

"What they are interested in is the area of extraterrestrial life," Sherwood Lollar says. "We study the Earth to understand what it might mean for the exploration of other planets."

Sherwood Lollar's research takes her two kilometres below the Earth's surface, where she collects water samples from cracks in the rock. There is life in the water — microbes that could hold the clue to survival on other planets.

It was often thought that nothing could live deep underground. Plants need photosynthesis, a process that requires the sun, and other organisms eat the plants to get energy, Sherwood Lollar notes. These microbes are able to survive without sunlight — a trait they might share with life forms in space.

"NASA and the Canadian Space Agency believe that if they find life on other planets, it will look like this," she says.

Microbes are minute living beings, too small to be seen by the human eye. Bacteria are a common type of microbe, also known as a micro-organism.

The water running through the cracks in the rocks of the copper and zinc mine in Timmins is 10 times more salty than seawater because it has been interacting with the rocks for up to 3 billion years. This groundwater makes a delicious beverage that is a favourite of microbes. "Microbes aren't stupid, they're going for the jelly doughnut every time," and turning the hydrogen in the water into energy, Sherwood Lollar says.The water also contains methane — a gas that is found on Mars. Sherwood Lollar studies the amount of gas in the water — gases produced by the microbes.

Methane found in the atmosphere of Mars may have been produced by microbes, suggesting there could be life on the red planet, says Martin Lebeuf, a manager of space sciences at the Canadian Space Agency.

NASA reports the average surface temperature on Mars is -53C. Due to the cold conditions water cannot remain in a liquid state, but it may exist below the surface, Lebeuf says. It is thought that microbes can live below the surface of Mars at points where the ice goes deep enough to be warmed by magma, a hot fluid or semi-liquid material that erupts as lava. Atmospheric radar will be used by NASA to find spots where the ice and magma meet.

"It is exciting because this is essentially a sort of rehearsal for what scientists will some day do on Mars, either robotically or in person," Lebeuf says in an email from the remote Haughton Mars Project Research Station in Nunavut where he's working. "This work will ultimately help to answer the fundamental question, `Are we alone in the universe?'"

The Kidd Creek mine in Timmins is a perfect place to study this phenomenon, notes Sherwood Lollar, because the mineshaft allows relatively easy access to the underground water. She's quick to credit staff at Kidd Creek who have been very accommodating in granting her access to the mine, where she's been conducting research throughout her 10 years at the U of T. Sherwood Lollar notes that, without the co-operation of mine workers, it would be almost impossible to conduct this type of study, since there is no other way to get access to rocks two kilometres underground.

She and her team of researchers also have been studying a mine in Thompson, Man., in their overall project, which has been funded by NASA since 2004 and was given a boost this spring from a Canadian Space Agency grant.

Mines in New Zealand, Finland and South Africa also have been used, but the Canadian Shield is an ideal Petri dish.

"Canada is a perfect place to conduct this research," Sherwood Lollar says.

"The world is coming here to do science.

"This contribution could give Canada a more active role in space missions. Sherwood Lollar, for example, has been participating in planning for future missions to Mars.

Lebeuf is also excited about the potential that Sherwood Lollar's research holds for science in this country. When international organizations such as NASA fund Canadian projects and come here to study, it allows the country to showcase what it can offer to the investigation of space.

"Ultimately, this may help to position Canada as a major player in future international exploration missions to Mars and elsewhere," Lebeuf says.