Question: what is extreme life

Rosie Cane answered on 18 Jun 2017:

Extreme life is life that can survive in what we call ‘extreme environments’ here on Earth. These are environments too harsh and horrible for humans to survive in. For example inside a volcano it’s really hot and there’s lots of bubbling, acidic lava! We wouldn’t like to live there, but some crazy creatures do! We can look at this life in these environments to give us an idea of what life could exist on other planets or moons in our solar system.

For example, we know that the surface of Mars is very cold and dry. We can look at the harsh conditions of deserts on Earth, which are very dry, and the Arctic which is freezing cold, to see how life survives those extreme environments. This can give us an idea of the kind of life that could survive (or have survived in the past) on Mars!