 Life totally rebounded on the driest desert on Earth. This might mean that potential life may exist on really dry areas on Mars too. This is your Psypod. At a common desert in South America where it will go decades without rain, scientists found life in the form of microorganisms in the soil. Researchers found several indigenous species of microbial life that will go dormant for decades without water. But then when it rains, they will be reactivated and begin reproducing. They did this by making multiple return trips to the desert in 2016 and again in 2017 and found that the samples they collected to be the same microbial communities in the soil that they observed to have gone dormant when there was lack of water. Lead planetary scientist for this study, Dirk Schultz-Makowicz said, we believe these microbial communities can lay dormant for hundreds or even thousands of years in conditions very similar to what you would find on a planet like Mars and then come back to life when it rains. Right now, we know that Mars has frozen water and studies show high chances of there being snowfall and moisture near the surface. And billions of years ago, Mars used to have small oceans and lakes where early life forms may have developed. But as it dried up and cooled down, it might be possible that microbes may have gone dormant but can spring up again upon moisture. Just as the microbes at the Atacama Desert also did. Future research includes visiting Don Juan Pond in Antarctica to collect samples at very shallow lakes that contain such high salt content that it actually remains liquid even at minus 50 degrees Celsius. The goal is to understand how these life forms manage to survive at the most extreme climates on Earth and those similar to Mars. So we know what to look for when exploring the next possible home base for humanity. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe at TMRO Science which comes up at 200 UTC time every four weeks on Saturday. Thanks guys and keep learning.