“The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight-previously thought to be the font of all Earth's life-has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical process based on geothermal heat, then life could exist under similar conditions on planets far removed from the nurturing light of our parent star, the Sun.”
![“The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight-previously thought to be the font of all Earth's life-has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical…” quote by Robert Ballard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/623/robert-ballard-13392_black_the-fact-that-this-chain-of-life-existed_1174978.jpg)
![“Before the discovery of these [underwater] vents, all life on Earth, the key to life on Earth, was believed to be the sun and photosynthesis. But down there, there is no sun, there is no photosynthesis; it's chemosynthetic environment down there driving it, and it's all so ephemeral.” quote by Mike deGruy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f4b/mike-degruy-62137_chemistry_before-the-discovery-of-these-underwater_1280363.jpg)
