Tomorrow's edition of the journal Nature will include a paper documenting the existence of microorganisms living far beneath Antarctic ice. Spec

Life Confirmed Under Antarctic Ice; Is Space Next?

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2024-09-25 15:30:04

Tomorrow's edition of the journal Nature will include a paper documenting the existence of microorganisms living far beneath Antarctic ice. Special drilling and extraction techniques allowed scientists to tap into an active ecosystem half a mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where life was found in a lake untouched by sunlight or wind for millions of years. The discovery raises the obvious question of what other extreme environments might be able to harbor life on our planet, or beyond.

A team led by Montana State University professor John Priscu brought up samples from below the ice that contained single-celled microbes called Archaea, which convert ammonium and methane into energy to survive and grow.

“We were able to prove unequivocally to the world that Antarctica is not a dead continent,” Priscu said in a release. Similar expeditions have found sub-ice environments teeming with bacteria in recent years, but questions have been raised about possible contamination in the drilling process. The paper's lead author Brent Christner says with this latest effort, there is now clear proof.