While in a Hawaiian lava tube, astrobiologists discovered new species of microorganisms thriving in the extreme environment! Data gathered will inform future missions to Martian lava tubes, locations some suspect life could’ve migrated to after Mars’ surface became inhospitable.
ALT Two silhouettes of scientists are seen as the researchers lower themselves 30 feet through an opening in the ground, which formed where part of a lava tube collapsed. Wearing a headlamp, gloves, and kneed pads, they climb down the tube's rocky walls deep under the ground. Bright sunlight shines at the mouth of the lava tube but only reaches a few feet into the opening, and the scientists lower themselves into the rocky darkness.