Turns out life isn't all that fragile

"Researchers have discovered an isolated, self-sustaining, bacterial community living under extreme conditions almost two miles deep beneath the surface in a South African gold mine. It is the first microbial community demonstrated to be exclusively dependent on geologically produced sulfur and hydrogen and one of the few ecosystems found on Earth that does not depend on energy from the Sun in any way. The discovery, appearing in the October 20 issue of Science, raises the possibility that similar bacteria could live beneath the surface of other worlds, such as Mars or Jupiter’s moon Europa."

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=1645

http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/news_releases/news_2006_1019.html

That' amazing that life can exist two miles below the earth; in the rock; and in an ecosystem driven by radioactive decay with no oxygen, no light and no organic input.

Also,  recently discovered, Hydrogen-Based Microbial ecosystems, thriving without oxygen, in deep volcanic rocks along the Columbia River and in Idaho Falls.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/272/5263/896a.pdf

We have also discovered life living in hostile environments in Antarctica, and deep on the ocean floor on hydrothermal vents.

With all of these discoveries it seems more likely that life could exist outside Earth.

This gets us closer to discovering the truth of the origins of life here on Earth.