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- [screeches]

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- Don't worry, this is not
an alien attacking me.

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It's just an extremophile.

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Extremophiles
are rugged life forms

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that survive
under extreme conditions.

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Yikes!
- [growling]

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- They can be found in places

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like the Atacama Desert
in Chile,

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which is the driest desert
on Earth.

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Or the bottom of an ocean
in a vent

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of an underwater volcano.

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These extreme environments
can help us understand

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how life may have formed
on other worlds too.

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Wonder where else
they can be found

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and why NASA is on the hunt
to find extremophiles?

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- When we study extremophiles
here on Earth,

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we're looking for environments

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that push the limit

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or the edges of physical
or chemical parameters

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that define an environment.

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We also go to places

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where the acidity
is very high.

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So places like acid mine
drainage,

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where very high acid waters

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come out of environments
where we've done mining.

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We're also interested in high pH

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and we go to places
like Soda Lake.

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Some of the lakes that are in
the Sierras in California.

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We're also interested
in extreme

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salinity,
so we go to places like

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the Great Salt Lake,
which has the salinity

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that is probably
10 to 100 times

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the salinity of seawater.

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We're also interested
in organisms

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that could withstand
radiation

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that's thousands of times
higher

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than the radiation that would
kill a human being.

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Because of NASA's exploration
of our solar system,

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we know that there's a diverse
array of environments

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in our own solar system.

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Now, we're interested to know
if those could support life.

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So NASA supports research
to go into what we call

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Analog Environments.

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Those are environments
that very much mimic

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the environments
that we might find on Venus

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which is very hot and acidic,

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the environment we might find
on Mars,

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which is very cold and dry.

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And so we're interested in
understanding the potential

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for life
in any of these environments

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because that will let us know
if it's a place

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worthy of our search for life

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in our solar system.

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- So if we know these types of
extremophiles can live here

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on Earth in extreme conditions,

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do you think
there could be organisms

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living on other planets
in those extreme conditions?

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- NASA's interested
in understanding

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the origin and evolution
of life here on Earth

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so we can understand
where else in our solar system,

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or beyond, life could exist.

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So one of the ways
we go about this

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is to learn as much as we can
about life here on Earth,

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and that really focuses on what
we learn about extremophiles.

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Then we look at other bodies
in our solar system

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and look at what kind of
environments they present

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that could host life.

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So if we look at Mars,
it's a lot colder

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and a lot drier,
so much less water on Mars

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than here on Earth.

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So we go to places
like the Atacama Desert

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to try to understand
what kind of organisms

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can live in that cold,
dry environment

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and then hope that
that will guide us

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in our search for life
on Mars.

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- When we're looking for life
on other planets,

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we need to stop thinking about
what's normal for us,

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instead think about
what's normal

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for extremophiles.

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If you want to find out more,

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check out this astrobiology
website.

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See you next time.

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[music playing]