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Life Found Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice

Sophisticated creatures found 600ft below frozen sheet

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 16, 2010 4:09 AM CDT | Updated Mar 16, 2010 5:32 AM CDT
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(Newser) – NASA scientists probing 600 feet beneath an Antarctic ice sheet were amazed to find sophisticated life where they had expected to find a few microbes at best. The team put a video camera into the dark subfreezing water and found a shrimp-like creature clinging to the cable when they pulled it back up, as well as a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

"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," a team biologist told AP. "We have no idea what's going on down there." Scientists say the find signals that they may need to rethink their ideas on how much life can thrive in hostile environments, both on Earth and in places like the moons of Jupiter.

This image NASA shows a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is related to a shrimp, where a NASA team lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet.
This image NASA shows a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is related to a shrimp, where a NASA team lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet.   (AP Photo/NASA)
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Video of the NASA team's find.   (itnnews)

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It's pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything. - NASA biologist Stacey Kim

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
Odoggy
Mar 16, 2010 2:30 PM CDT
I wonder how the shrimp tastes?
DavoMax
Mar 16, 2010 12:51 PM CDT
I hope you enjoyed life, Arctic Wildlife. Humans have arrived to eff it up for you!!
finkster
Mar 16, 2010 9:37 AM CDT
Man has always had the audacity to think he knows... while nature constantly shows him he doesn't.

 
NASA • Antarctica • marine biology • Antarctic Ocean

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