Detecting strange life under Antarctic ice

Russian scientists believe that they have discovered a new form of life buried for millions of years in a lake buried deep in the Antarctic ice sheet.

Russia's RIA news agency reported that, after more than a decade of intermittent exploration drilling, the country's researchers were finally able to penetrate the Antarctic's frozen crust last year and collect samples of water from Lake Vostok, which has not been approached for at least 14 million years.

A man stands near the drilling device at
Russia's Vostok lake research station in Antarctica in 2006

Scientists believe that this freshwater lake, located deep below the ice surface, is about 3,700m (which is about 500m above sea level) that can reveal a little about Earth before the Ice Age as well as provide clues about life on other planets.

"After eliminating all known impurities, the DNA of the bacteria found does not match any species in every database in the world. If it (bacteria) is found on Mars. , then we can say with certainty that the red planet is alive, but this is the DNA obtained on Earth so we call it an unidentified or classified life form , " said expert Sergei. Bulat of St. Peters Institute Petersburg (Russia) said.

Scientists from the United States and Britain are also following Russian colleagues in understanding which life forms can exist in one of the harshest environments on Earth.

This year, an American expedition claimed to have seen living cells using a microscope to look at samples taken from Lake Whillans, shallow under the Antarctic ice sheet. However, they need to do more research to determine which bacteria are and how they live.

An English attempt to reach the third entity in Antarctica, Lake Ellsworth, was suspended in December last year due to problems in exploration drilling.

The discovery of Russian scientists by the analysis of frozen water at the tip of the drill penetrates to Lake Vostok - the largest individual in a network of hundreds of lakes buried under ice that acts as a blanket. Geothermal confines of our planet.

Russian scientists are still waiting for more samples to validate their findings. Because the technology is used to avoid pristine lake pollution, Russia is expected to only get clean water samples (water that is not contaminated by the liquid dripping from the drilling process) for analysis. Last year.