Microscopic Alien Detection

According to Space.com, NASA researchers have begun monitoring microbial organisms to learn how to use them as a model for detecting alien life. The process involves monitoring the distinct marker sulfur deposits leave on planetary systems. Scientists have focussed on the only place on our planet where sulfur is deposited over ice--a natural spring high in the Canadian Arctic on Ellesmere Island.

There scientists have been using a satellite sensor, called Hyperion, to measure wavelengths of light that we cannot normally see in order to measure sulfur deposits which lead to biological activity. According to scientists, sulfur will leave a pale yellow stain on the ice which is the telltale sign of biological activity. Scientists have used this sensor to aerial monitor and map these sulfur deposits.

Using the mapping images created from high altitude, scientists are able to study such deposits from space. Such data can then be compared with that from other planetary systems, such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Titan, to see if similar microbial life are creating such sulfur deposits abroad.

Image: "Another Cloudy Day" by Ben Heine on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.