NASA's astrobiology discovery at Mono Lake

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Mono Lake in California is nearly 700,000 years old, making it one of the oldest lakes in North America. Throughout its long existence, salts and minerals have washed into the lake from Eastern Sierra streams, but there is no outlet. Fresh water evaporating leaves behind salts and minerals so that now Mono Lake is about two-and-one-half times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as the ocean. Although Mono Lake is an extreme environment for life, it hosts a thriving ecosystem. There are no fish, but the lake supports trillions of brine shrimp (which feed vast numbers of nesting and migrating birds) and a bizarre variety of scuba-diving alkaline flies. It is also brimming with microorganisms such as diatoms, cyanobacteria and filamentious algae.

NASA has scheduled a news conference for Thursday (2pm EST, 8pm CET) to "discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life". Further details on the subject of the news conference have been embargoed. The vague nature of the announcement, its subject surrounding extraterrestrial life and also the list of conference participants has led to the NASA announcement creating a wave of excitement amongst bloggers across the internet. NASA will broadcast the news conference live (20:00 CET) on NASA Television and on its website. 

Last year we visited Yosemite National Park and already saw some disturbing things near the Mono Lake.