A hydrothermal source or vent is a crevice in the surface of a planet, from which hot water flows and is usually located in places that are volcanically active, where the magma is relatively close to the surface.

Scientists at Arizona State University, United States, considered the existence of geochemical reasons for the environments that surround these systems to become critical points and develop new organisms, according to an article published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

That conclusion, compared to conditions in seafloor sediments and other similar areas, where organisms thrive near hydrothermal vents and hot fluids mix with extremely cold seawater.

On the surface of the Earth, molecules of the food consumed by different forms of life are unstable in the presence of oxygen, a condition used by our cells to grow and reproduce, in a process called biosynthesis.

However, biosynthesis in the depths of the oceans is not so simple: it requires a series of conditions that, according to US biogeoscientists Jeffrey Dick and Everett Shock, would take place in hydrothermal vents.

The finding would open a new possibility for the identification of unknown life forms in the depths of the oceans and on those planets with these masses of salt water.

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