{"id":225999,"date":"2025-11-27T00:26:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/meteorite-crater-hosts-methane-making-microbes-a-clue-to-life-on-mars"},"modified":"2025-11-27T00:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:26:18","slug":"meteorite-crater-hosts-methane-making-microbes-a-clue-to-life-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/meteorite-crater-hosts-methane-making-microbes-a-clue-to-life-on-mars","title":{"rendered":"Meteorite crater hosts methane-making microbes\u2014a clue to life on Mars?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/meteorite-crater-hosts-methane-making-microbes-a-clue-to-life-on-mars2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have discovered living microbes producing methane in the fractured rocks deep inside Sweden\u2019s Siljan impact crater, offering insights into Earth\u2019s earliest life and the search for life beyond our planet.<\/p>\n<p>This breakthrough not only sheds light on one of Earth\u2019s most <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2023-12-life-molecular-clouds.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">ancient metabolic processes <\/a>\u2014methanogenesis\u2014but also strengthens the link between meteorite impact structures and microbial survival in extreme environments. The findings are <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.asm.org\/doi\/10.1128\/mbio.03017-25\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal <i>mBio<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Methanogenesis is considered one of the earliest metabolisms on Earth, and its presence in deep subsurface environments has long intrigued scientists. Now, for the first time, active microbial methane production has been confirmed in a terrestrial impact crater. Using cultures enriched from fluids 400 meters below the surface, the team demonstrated methane generation from several carbon sources, including indigenous oil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have discovered living microbes producing methane in the fractured rocks deep inside Sweden\u2019s Siljan impact crater, offering insights into Earth\u2019s earliest life and the search for life beyond our planet. This breakthrough not only sheds light on one of Earth\u2019s most ancient metabolic processes \u2014methanogenesis\u2014but also strengthens the link between meteorite impact structures and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1522],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}