Alien Life May Feed Off Of Galactic Cosmic Rays

Extreme microbes living in hostile locations on Earth may be munching on cosmic rays that zip through space, says a study of a peculiar bacterium thriving in a dark gold mine.

If there is an existence of life on other planets, say, Mars, it too may be feeding off of cosmic rays in order to survive, the new research suggests, as reported in Space.

"When you have radiation penetrating deep below the surface, where there might be water on Mars or [Jupiter's moon] Europa, then it could start chemical reactions that life could use," said study author Dimitra Atri, a research scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Seattle. Explaining further, Atri said that organisms that munch on galactic cosmic rays could even survive on rogue planets which are not bound to any star and drift throughout interstellar space.

Life on Earth relies primarily on light from the sun. Photosynthesis takes place in the presence of sunlight, which, in turn, supplies the energy and nutrients that are used by other organisms in order to survive. Still, in the absence of light, organisms can use other sources of energy, such as chemical energy or heat energy, as suggested by previous studies.

Prior researches have even shown that life-forms can feed off the ionizing radiation - which has sufficient energy to charge or ionize atoms from radioactive materials.

"Most research on ionizing radiation concerns its potentially harmful effects, such as damage to DNA," Atri told Live Science. "But a bacterium that is cut off completely from sunlight and the rest of the biosphere can survive completely off of ionizing radiation."

The galactic cosmic rays hold much higher energy than other radiation sources on Earth. When they strike the atmosphere or a planet's surface, they generate a gush of particles such as neutrons, positrons, and electrons along with the dangerous gamma rays. Atri said galactic cosmic rays could be found everywhere and they have an enormous amount of energy that helps them to penetrate even through the surfaces of planets.

Using computer simulations, Atri concluded that galactic cosmic rays could account for a steady flow of energy for organisms living underground. The energy flow might extend to potential life on other planets.