Justin Wang

It's hard to imagine something more hostile to life than an ultra-acidic volcanic lake with frequent eruptions, the low biodiversity coupled with numerous adaptations and metabolisms in our sample suggests the lake hosts highly specialized microbes for this kind of environment.

When I went to Costa Rica Poás volcano, Costa Rica Poás volcano was after over a year of magmatic eruptions and only a month after the lake reformed and it was deemed safe enough to return to the crater lake's surface, the lake itself is roiling and dynamic. As you get even closer, you can smell the strong stench of sulfur, which has remained on the clothes I was wearing to this day. Even worse is the smell of hydrochloric acid, which tastes sour in the air and stings the eyes.

It is a very intense and thrilling experience to sample from the lake, i'm very lucky to be one of the handful of scientists in the world to have been able to visit this environment.

I think we need to change the way of how we think of life on other worlds, we need to consider the unique geological histories of our extraterrestrial environments and put that in context with what we have here on Earth. If rivers were unstable on Mars while hot springs were common, then perhaps life in hydrothermal environments is the most likely place where life could have existed.

Between 2013 and 2017, there were numerous phreatic eruptions that influx toxic metals, extreme acidity, and heat to the lake, but nevertheless we saw some of the same microorganisms in the same environment.

The crater rim of the Jezero Crater, where the Perseverance rover is now, is a place that likely exhibited hydrothermal activity due to the crater-forming impact that occurred, so I'd be curious to see what results Perseverance finds when it reaches there.