An extremophile could be found living at the bottom of the ocean floor where most other microorganisms would die. With this in mind, scientists believe that extremophiles may be living on other planets in space because these microorganisms can live in harsh environments where the essentials for life may not be present. "He grounds them in what life apparently requires: lots of carbon, about 20 other elements, liquid water, and an energy source. After discussing DNA Chemistry, Jakosky takes up the environmental niches where life might once have existed, or persists, on Mars, Europa, Jupiter, and Titan" (Taylor 44). So when looking at the way an extremophile lives and directly relating it to the many harsh environments in space, scientists can search for evidence of extraterrestrial life in space and possibly have success. On the other hand, intelligent extraterrestrial life is a whole other possibility that is much more important too. At its most basic definition, intelligent extraterrestrial life is intelligent life that exists on another planet elsewhere in the universe. This life can grow, create, discover, and think. Extremophiles on another planet would be considered extraterrestrial life just not intelligent; extremophiles still play a key role in finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. .
And new discoveries of so called extremophiles on Earth-organisms that can live in severe environments from very cold to the very hot to the very toxic-suggest that life could exist elsewhere in the universe. These recent findings would seem to augur well for SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Life) enterprise, which uses scientific methods to scan the galaxy for electromagnetic transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations ("Expanding Mind or Expanding Universe"). Furthermore, the research shows that extremophiles and intelligent life have a good probability of existing elsewhere in the universe.