Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




ICE WORLD
Russia 'drills into' Antarctic subglacial lake
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Feb 6, 2012


A Russian team has succeeded in drilling through four kilometres (2.5 miles) of ice to the surface of a mythical subglacial Antarctic lake which could hold as yet unknown life forms, reports said Monday.

Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica and scientists want to study its eco-system which has been isolated for hundreds of thousands of years under the ice in the hope of finding previously unknown microbiological life forms.

"Our scientists completed drilling at a depth of 3,768 metres and reached the surface of the subglacial lake," an unnamed source told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Sergei Lesenkov, spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute, told AFP in Moscow that there was the possibility of a "fundamental scientific development".

Lesenkov said that analysis of the composition of gas bubbles discovered in the ice above the lake could help climate change research.

"Because the lower layer was formed 400,000 years ago, from the composition of the gas it is possible to judge the gas composition in the atmosphere 400,000 years ago and during the time that has passed since the formation of the lake," he said.

"From there, it is possible to identify and forecast certain climatic changes in the future. This is very important."

No official announcement of the breakthrough has been made, although sources said that this was expected to come from the government.

"If it is true and it's successful, it's a milestone that's been completed. This is a major achievement for the Russians because they've been working on it for years," Professor Martin Siegert, head of the school of geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, told AFP.

He said that exploring environments such as Lake Vostok would allow scientists to discover what life forms can exist in the most extreme conditions and thus whether life could exist on some other bodies in the solar system.

There has long been excitement among some scientists that life theoretically could exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus and the Jupiter moon Europa as they are believed to have oceans, or large lakes, beneath their icy shells.

Valerie Massson-Delmotte of the climate and environment laboratory at the French Atomic Energy Commission, said Lake Vostok was of particular interest as it had been formed over the course of 400,000 years.

"There is also a strong interest from biologists to study the forms of life that could exist in these extreme conditions which have been separated from the rest of the world environment for several million years," she said.

RIA Novosti said that the possibility that the lake existed had first been suggested by a Soviet scientist in 1957. Scientific research drilling in the area started in 1989 and the lake's existence was confirmed only in 1996.

But efforts to reach its surface were suspended two years later amid fears that the process could contaminate the waters.

After developing new techniques in an attempt to ease environmental concerns, attempts to drill down through the deep ice sheet to the lake's surface resumed.

The Russian researchers intend to start drilling again and obtain water samples from the lake for analysis in December after a ten-month break due to harsh weather conditions.

The hidden lakes of the Antarctic are seen as one of the final frontiers in exploring the Earth and several teams from other nations are also engaged in similar projects.

There is still controversy over the methods used by Russia, with Western scientists expressing concern that the kerosene that has been used to prevent freezing ice from closing the borehole risks contaminating samples.

Siegert will lead a mission next year to drill into another subglacial lake in west Antarctica called Lake Ellsworth, using a different technique called hot-water drilling.

emc-mp-ri-chc-sjw/mb

.


Related Links
Beyond the Ice Age






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








ICE WORLD
Voyage to the most isolated base on Earth
Paris (ESA) Feb 03, 2012
Alexander Kumar, the next ESA-sponsored crewmember to stay in Concordia, has arrived safely at the research base in Antarctica. The voyage to one of the remotest places on Earth takes even longer than the voyage to the International Space Station. The international outpost's programme of research includes glaciology, human biology and the atmosphere. ESA uses the base to prepare for future ... read more


ICE WORLD
Manned Moon Shot Possible by 2020

NASA Mission Returns First Video From Lunar Far Side

A Moon Colony by 2020

U.S. Presidential Hopeful Promises Moon Base by 2020

ICE WORLD
Russia May Run Repeat Mission to Phobos

U.K. study: Mars surface too dry for life

Radio Doppler Tracking Continues at Cape York

Russia May Repeat Mars-500 Simulation on Space Station

ICE WORLD
Precision space maneuvers

How Do You Fight Fire in Space?

NASA Receives Final NRC Report On Space Technology Roadmaps

Final Call to Register and Win Suborbital Research Flight

ICE WORLD
China's satellite navigation sector annual output predicted to reach 35 bln USD in 2015

China plans to launch 21 rockets, 30 satellites this year

Shenzhou 9 Behind the Curtain

China Plans to Launch 30 Satellites in 2012

ICE WORLD
Next manned ISS mission to launch May 15: Russia

Capsule failure delays ISS crew mission

Russia to postpone next manned space launch: official

Russia will replace Soyuz for next ISS mission: source

ICE WORLD
SpaceX flight to ISS could be late March: NASA

Feb 13 set as new date for Europe's Vega rocket

Launch of Proton-M with Dutch Satellite Postponed

First Vega rocket assembled on launch pad

ICE WORLD
Elements of ExoPlanets

New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

Russia to Start Own Search for Extrasolar Planets

Planets Circling Around Twin Suns

ICE WORLD
Samsung condemns 'anti-Iran' ad featuring its tablet

Engine Failure Behind Meridian Satellite Crash

Program Glitch Led to Russian Mars Probe Failure

SciTechTalk: In the cloud we trust?




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement