Life found beneath Antarctic ice sheet
Questions raised about where life can exist
-
NASA/Goddard's Scientific Visualization StudioWindless Bight is more than 12 miles from open water, even in the Antarctic summer – not exactly where one would expect to find sophisticated aquatic life-forms swimming beneath a layer of ice nearly 600 feet thick. This map shows the location of the drill site overlaid on NASA's Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica.
Scientists have found life 600 feet beneath an Antarctic ice sheet, questioning assumptions about life in the universe.
NASA scientists examining the underside of the sheet were surprised to discover a creature swimming under the ice.
"We were like little kids huddling around, just oohing and aahing at this little creature swimming around and giving us a little show," Bob Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told NASA. "It was the thrill of discovery that made us giddy; just totally unexpected."
Researchers found a 3-inch long shrimp-like creature and what they believe to be a jellyfish tentacle. This has led to scientists rethinking ideas about what conditions must be present for life to exist.
Biologist Stacy Kim of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories told the Associated Press:
"They are looking at the equivalent of a drop of water in a swimming pool that you would expect nothing to be living in and they found not one animal but two," said Kim, who joined the NASA team later. "We have no idea what's going on down there."
Shrimpy surprise from Science News on Vimeo.
On the Web
- NASA: NASA Spots Surprising Shrimp Beneath Antarctic Ice
- The Associated Press: NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica
