Life under the crust?

I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

Originally posted by Coconut
I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

I don't know about the mantle, but deep in the crust it is conceivable:

http://physicsweb.org/articles/review/12/2/1

Originally posted by Coconut
I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

why couldn't there be
it probably would be rather different from us but . . .

Originally posted by sofar55
why couldn't there be
it probably would be rather different from us but . . .

What temperature are we talking about?
This is probably the answer to the original question.

Originally posted by Coconut
I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

Yes there are dozens of species living inside the earth. Pretty crazy ones too. They're not always that friendly but miners sometime see them when they're digging gold and coal mines. Weird creatures they are. Not too communcative and their droppings stink to high heaven. The rule of thumb is that if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone...just don't disturb their nest or they'll spray you with a stink worse than 1000 skunks.

Originally posted by uzless
Yes there are dozens of species living inside the earth. Pretty crazy ones too. They're not always that friendly but miners sometime see them when they're digging gold and coal mines. Weird creatures they are. Not too communcative and their droppings stink to high heaven. The rule of thumb is that if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone...just don't disturb their nest or they'll spray you with a stink worse than 1000 skunks.

Wasn't Coconut talking about "the inners of the earth."? Minings is only done in the outer 1000 m of the crust.
Yes, of course, bats and rats are down there, but was Coconut really thinking of those quite normal species?

Originally posted by Coconut
I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

The mantle, inner core and outer core are all far too harsh enviroments for life. The moon and mars would have a greater chance. Not just the heat but the pressure, chemicals, movement and other factors would stop it.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
What temperature are we talking about?
This is probably the answer to the original question.

The mantle is around 1000(C), much too high for carbon based life-forms as we understand them. The cohesion of DNA and other vital molecules begins to break down at around 150(C) (apparently):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermophile

Also the mantle begins at around 30Km deep but the deepest life (we know of) is only 11Km down:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0203_050203_deepest.html

The life found this deep (11Km) is among the most basic forms of life possible (single celled organisms, algae, slime mould etc.). It is unlikely that anything more complex could survive at even this relatively shallow depth, let alone within the mantle itself.

Of course mans understanding of the limitations/possibilties of life is not complete, so who's to say for sure 😕

Originally posted by Coconut
I was watching a particular car commercial where the vehicle plummets through earth and through several small communities of creatures. We don't know much about the inners of the earth. Could there conceivably be life that can survive in the temperature that exists in the mantle of our planet?

Depends if God has a sense of humour. And anyway, isn't that where Hell is?

Originally posted by MCA
The life found this deep (11Km) is among the most basic forms of life possible (single celled organisms, algae, slime mould etc.). It is unlikely that anything more complex could survive at even this relatively shallow depth, let alone within the mantle itself.

Of course mans understanding of the limitations/possibilties of life is not complete, so who's to say for sure 😕

The interesting thing about life is that there is not a definite definition of the very phenomenon 'life'. What is life really?, no one knows.

We define simply life as materia having DNA and have the possibility of reproducing.
Virus falls within even if it hs to have some help reproducing.
Prions fall outside the definition.
(What about my grandmother, she is no longer with us...?)
And what about mitocondriae? Not having DNA but have something else to reproduce itself with.

When life was young at Earth, the DNA-bound life was the only life that survived. We don't know anything more than that. Perhaps some other life did survived that have qualities that could, even still can, withstand the extreme preasures and temperatures that we find far below the surface, but again, we don't know anything about this. Even if we have a sample of this life perhaps we discard it as non-life, who knows.

Is this lack of a non-disputable definition of life pose a problem? Perhaps when we enter other planets with probes or even with astronauts - how can we discover that the planet already is habitated? With primitive bacteria or non-moving higher forms of life?

Just my thoughts...

Originally posted by FabianFnas
The interesting thing about life is that there is not a definite definition of the very phenomenon 'life'. What is life really?, no one knows.

We define simply life as materia having DNA and have the possibility of reproducing.
Virus falls within even if it hs to have some help reproducing.
Prions fall outside the definition.
(What about my grand ...[text shortened]... abitated? With primitive bacteria or non-moving higher forms of life?

Just my thoughts...

hence the last line of my post.

Originally posted by MCA
hence the last line of my post.

And exactly that line inspired me to write my last posting. Thanks.