Complex life discovered where we never thought to find it...

[bryce]

600ft under the ice in Antarctica. (Article doesn't say if it's in one of the ice-covered lakes, but I assume so...)

The possibility of finding something swimming around under the ice on Europa and other moons, just went way up...!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_sc/us_sci_antarctica_sea_life

Scientists go 'gaga' to find creatures beneath 600 feet of ice




By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap

Science Writer – Mon Mar 15, 4:05 pm ET

WASHINGTON – In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

Six hundred feet below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist....

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Life is definitely more resilient and adaptable than we often give it credit for. This is a great find!

 

[RoJoHen]

Neat!

It's only a matter of time before we discover an ancient civilization of Arctic Mermaids.

 

[Jetfire]

And people make jokes about ice fishing on Europa.

We need to go to Europa NOW!!!

 

[ProtoAvatar]

Callisto should be the initial destination - it lies well outside Jupiter's radiation belt and the abundant ice to be found there also has uses.
Using Callisto as a base, one could send missions to its neighbour moon, Europa.

 

[Noname Given]

Neat!

It's only a matter of time before we discover an ancient civilization of Arctic Mermaids.

What? Didn't you see the semi-documentery film, (by James Cameron) in the late 1980ies - The Abyss

(Seriously, this is interesting and IMO does bode well for finding higher order life somewhere in our Solar System imo.)

 

[PlixTixiplik]

This is not in one of the subglacial lakes; rather, it's under the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea. So it's not completely decoupled from photosynthetic productivity, although given the distance from the open ocean it's certainly unusual because it's difficult to imagine how plankton and other nutrients are transported so far under the ice shelf. It's definitely a fascinating area.

 

[EyalM]

This is not in one of the subglacial lakes; rather, it's under the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea. So it's not completely decoupled from photosynthetic productivity, although given the distance from the open ocean it's certainly unusual because it's difficult to imagine how plankton and other nutrients are transported so far under the ice shelf. It's definitely a fascinating area.

That's what is guessed when I read this. The problem with the sub glacial lakes is that they are under a huge amount of pressure (due to being under hundreds of meters of ice) and drilling will cause an explosive decompression (or so I've heard).

 

[PlixTixiplik]

I suspect they can use drilling mud to deal with the high pressure, just like they do with oil wells. This is only 600 m of ice, compared to several km of rock in some of the deeper oil wells. The sticking point is the potential for contaminating the subglacial lake (or Europa) with the drilling muds themselves, which is something they would like to avoid.

 

[TrekMD]

This was indeed an impressive find...and definitely something that should have scientists talking for a while on how these animals evolved in such cold water!