Photosynthetic microbial mats are important in our search for life elsewhere
Microbial mats are living examples of the most ancient biological communities on Earth. As Earth’s earliest ecosystems, they are centrally important to understanding the history of life on our planet and are useful models for the search for life elsewhere. Photosynthetic microbial mats are key
because, today, sunlight powers more than 99 percent of
global primary productivity. For most of Earth's history,
photosynthetic ecosystems have affected the atmosphere
profoundly and have created the most pervasive, easily-detected
fossils. Therefore, surface-dwelling biospheres on other
planets that derived their energy principally from sunlight
will be the ones most amenable to detection via telescopes
or spacecraft.
Read more about exactly how microbial mats contribute to NASA's search for life elsewhere within our solar system and in the rest of the universe in the Astrobiology Roadmap.
