Editing Halophile (section)

{{Not to be confused with|text=[[fandom]] of the [[Halo (franchise)|Halo]] video game franchise}}{{Short description|Organisms that live in high salt concentrations}}
A '''halophile''' (from the Greek word for 'salt-loving') is an [[extremophile]] that thrives in high [[salt]] concentrations. In chemical terms, halophile refers to a [[Lewis acids and bases|Lewis acidic]] species that has some ability to extract halides from other chemical species. 

While most halophiles are classified into the domain [[Archaea]], there are also [[bacteria]]l halophiles and some [[Eukaryote|eukaryotic]] species, such as the [[alga]] ''[[Dunaliella salina]]'' and [[fungus]] ''[[Wallemia ichthyophaga]]''. Some well-known species give off a red color from carotenoid compounds, notably [[bacteriorhodopsin]]. 

Halophiles can be found in water bodies with salt concentration more than five times greater than that of the ocean, such as the [[Great Salt Lake]] in Utah, [[Owens Lake]] in California, the [[Lake Urmia]] in Iran, the [[Dead Sea]], and in [[evaporation pond]]s. They are theorized to be a possible analogues for modeling extremophiles that might live in the salty subsurface water ocean of Jupiter's [[Europa (moon)|Europa]] and similar moons.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marion |first1=Giles M. |last2=Fritsen|first2=Christian H. |last3=Eicken |first3=Hajo |last4=Payne |first4=Meredith C. |date=2003-12-01 |title=The search for life on Europa: Limiting environmental factors, potential habitats, and Earth analogues |journal=Astrobiology |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=785–811 |doi=10.1089/153110703322736105 |pmid=14987483 |bibcode=2003AsBio...3..785M |issn=1531-1074 |url=https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/153110703322736105|url-access=subscription }}</ref>