Posted on 02/05/2011 11:48:03 AM PST by pillut48
Russian scientists are set to pierce through Antarctica’s frozen surface to reveal the secrets of an icebound lake that has been sealed deep there for the past 15 million years.
Alexei Turkeyev, head of the Russian polar Vostok Station, told Reuters by satellite phone that scientists have “only a bit left to go.” His team has been drilling for weeks in a race to reach the lake -- buried 12,000 feet beneath the polar ice cap -- before the end of the brief Antarctic summer.
With the quickly returning onset of winter, scientists will be forced to leave on the last flight out on February 6. “It's minus 40 (Celsius/Fahrenheit) outside,” said Turkeyev. “But whatever, we're working. We're feeling good. There's only 5 meters left until we get to the lake so it'll all be very soon.”
Scientists are hoping the lake will reveal new forms of life and show how life evolved may have evolved in the times before the ice age. The lake could also offer scientists a glimpse of what conditions exist for life in similar extremes on Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa.
“It's like exploring an alien planet where no one has been before. We don't know what we'll find,” Valery Lukin of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which oversees the expedition, told Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at redorbit.com ...
I wanna drink some of it.
Or some really bad-a$$ bacteria!
They are talking about using the experience of exploring this lake to explore one of Jupiter’s moons. Titan or Europa, not sure which one. Very cool!
“We don’t know what we’ll find,” Valery Lukin of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which oversees the expedition, told Reuters.”
Definitely not vodka, so you may want to stop it right now.
“This is cool! Wonder if they’ll find the Loch Ness Monster’s southern cousins down there... “
Got to love a country that is still doing scientific exploration - rather than retreating to debt and self-destruction.
Who Goes There?
The Thing [From Another Planet]
[John Carpenter’s] The Thing
I recall reading about this several years ago. There was a moratorium placed on accessing the lake due to the likelihood of contamination. Maybe the contamination issue has been resolved.
I hope they can do this without contaminating it.
Finally we’ll find out where Jimmy Hoffa is buried!
Why? Then no one will use it anymore?
“I recall reading about this several years ago. There was a moratorium placed on accessing the lake due to the likelihood of contamination. Maybe the contamination issue has been resolved.”
I read that too, more recently. They stopped themselves until they it was clear that they were not going to contaminate - that’s why the race now. Impressive project from a country that understands Islam.
Let's assume they're doing the whole nine yards of isolation, bio-hazard, etc of the water samples. . . Interesting though. A whole new world.
Ummmm. Anybody seen Algore? Da boy has some 'splainin' to do.
Wasn’t there a sci-fi book written about this very thing (no, not “The Thing”). It also mentioned bottling the water and selling it for some outrages amount - there was some nasty bacteria in it.
“only a bit left to go.”
No pun intended.
Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
obamas long form will be there watch and see
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