'Earth MRI' reveals another world full of strange creatures beneath Antarctica

A world sealed off for thousands of years beneath Antarctica could reshape scientific understanding of how the ice continent responds to climate change and guide the hunt for alien life.

Scientists are conducting a survey of Antarctica - (Image: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY)

According to Live Science, it is a vast aquifer of seawater, possibly sealed from the outside world for thousands of years, containing creatures that have adapted and transformed completely different from the rest. of the earth.

According to Dr. Chloe D.Gustafson from the Earth Observatory of Columbia University (USA), lead author of the study, this underground world starts from a depth of half a kilometer to 2 km, which means it must be very large and very thick. , contains about 20 times the amount of water ever found in the lake system previously discovered at the foot of the ice shelf.

An "Earth MRI" technique in the Whillans ice line in West Antarctica has revealed a new world. The technique is based on electromagnetic fields that travel through the Earth as the solar wind strikes the ionosphere, excites particles within this layer.

These electromagnetic fields create secondary fields in ice, snow, and sediment. Combined with many modern magnetic field instruments, scientists will have what is called a mega-MRI or "Earth MRI".

According to the Daily Mail, it is not clear to researchers whether there is an exchange of water in this underground world or with other structures of the ice stream. Water exchange between shallow and deep systems can affect the growth of the organisms that live there, how they find nutrients, and how they adapt to their new environment.

The discovery is also good news for astronomers, who have long suspected that many icy bodies, such as Jupiter's moon Europa or Pluto, may contain an underground world beneath the ice surface. the eternal. It could be an underground ocean, or it could be a sealed underground world, on a smaller scale like the one just discovered in Antarctica. That is believed to be where alien life is hiding.