Researchers have found their previous discovery of bacteria living on air in Antarctica is likely a process that occurs globally, further supporting the potential existence of microbial life on alien planets.

Specifically, researchers found the target genes responsible for the atmospheric chemosynthesis phenomenon they discovered are abundant and widely distributed in the polar soils of the Antarctic, Arctic and Tibetan Plateau in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas.

The new research was published in the journal Frontiers this month and was a collaboration between UNSW, the Australian Antarctic Division and China’s Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research.

The study’s senior author Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari, of UNSW Science, said living on air was such a minimalistic way to survive that their findings lent further potential for microbial life to exist on other planets.

«This is what NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is aiming to do — to search for signs of ancient microbial life in core samples of Martian rock and soil,» A/Prof Ferrari said.

«A future mission will take the samples back to Earth and NASA scientists will analyse the soil in a similar way we do, to try and see whether there are any indicators of life.»

A/Prof Ferrari said the researchers’ findings meant that microbes which use trace gases as their energy and carbon source to grow — unlike photosynthesis which uses light — was not a process isolated to Antarctica.

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