
The New Horizons space probe was launched a few years ago, and is headed to the outer limits of the solar system with the intent of studying icy bodies. How might places far from the sun, like Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, have life? Here on Earth, there are life forms that live inside the ice of Antarctica; they literally grow in the cracks! However, they don't have to worry about the atmospheric cycles that Pluto and other bodies have. As Pluto revolves around the sun, the ice on its surface slightly evaporates and creates an extremely thin atmosphere. Could life handle these changes of melting and freezing? The main problem they might have is adapting, due to the length of its orbital period. However, microbes would be able to adapt; they would evolve to live in freezing temperatures, live with little atmosphere and survive with little sunlight.
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