The 'microbial garden' taking the shine off glaciers
Thursday, June 12, 2014 - 13:40
in Astronomy & Space
The first ecological study of an entire glacier has found that microbes drastically reduce surface reflectivity and have a non-negligible impact on the amount of sunlight that is reflected into space. Observing how life thrives at extreme cold temperatures also has important implications for the search for life on distant worlds, such as Jupiter's icy moon Europa.