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Signs of Subsurface 'Alien' Life Found In Antarctica
astroengine writes: An airborne survey of a presumably dry Antarctic valley revealed a stunning and unexpected interconnected subsurface briny aquifer deep beneath the frozen tundra, a finding that not only has implications for understanding extreme habitats for life on Earth, but the potential for life elsewhere in the solar system, particularly Mars. The briny liquid — about twice as salty as seawater — was discovered about 200 miles underground in a region known as Taylor Valley. The aquifer is widespread, extending from the Ross Sea's McMurdo Sound more than 11 miles into the eastern part of valley. A second system was found connecting Taylor Glacier with the ice-cover Lake Bonney. But the survey, which covered 114 square miles, may have just uncovered the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Seriously - don't dig those things up...
Damn, that's a deep hole.
I remember this, and it ends with me being called an ugly bag of mostly water.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
The article doesn't reveal much about the type of life that is found, and why it is called 'alien'.
Is it possible that life was discovered 200 miles underground when the deepest drilling is only a few miles? Maybe it stretches for 200 miles or something. Earths temperature goes up 15 degrees F for every mile you go down. so at 200 miles down the temperature would be about 600 degrees F. Which would be very much out of the range of any other life.
>> the survey, which covered 114 square miles, may have just uncovered the proverbial tip of the iceberg
An iceberg is 90% submerged, so...the survey only covered 10% of the total area? Or found only 10% of the stuff? Or which 10%?
for misleading headlines. Bravo. Not to mention wholesale copy-and-paste does not a /. article make.
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LInk to the original publication: Deep groundwater and potential subsurface habitats beneath an Antarctic dry valley
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They even already have a documentary about it out.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt03...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I found more information here: more information There is mention of 200m: "We believe the aquifer beneath Lake Vida is a remnant of a time when the water levels across [the valley] were much higher than present. Upwards of 200 meters higher,”. However, the instruments they were using were only capable of penetrating 600M so it's definately not 200 miles!!
I was sure this was referencing life under Lake Vostok elsewhere on the continent, I just assumed it was until I saw Blood Falls mentioned.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150428/ncomms7831/full/ncomms7831.html
enjoy
near surface in my book
Silly Americans. "Metre" is of course the correct spelling. It rathre annoys me when they write it in that othre mannre. By the way, I love your leathre jacket. Just be careful though in rainy weathre - you might get watre stains.
Call it 600f. Furlongs, no confusion.
They didn't find any life, just some really salty water. And I really doubt that any life they find there would be especially alien. Quite a leap to go from there to Mars.
You should give up on this notion of the "One True English."
What does this have to do with English? "Metre" is the name of the international standard unit of length. If you wish you refer to measurements in the international standard unit of length, you use the name "metre". This is regardless of the particular language or sub-language variant you are using at the time.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/...
A Colder War
"... The metal pier is dry and cold, the temperature hovering close to zero degrees Fahrenheit. It's oppressively dark in the cavern under the ice, and Roger shivers inside his multiple layers of insulation, shifts from foot to foot to keep warm. He has to swallow to keep his ears clear and he feels slightly dizzy from the pressure in the artificial bubble of air, pumped under the icy ceiling to allow humans to exist here, under the Ross Ice Shelf; they'll all spend more than a day sitting in depressurization chambers on the way back up to the surface. ... They're waiting for the men in the midget sub drilling quietly through three miles of frigid water, intruders in a long-drowned tomb...."
There is no sound from the waters lapping just below the edge of the pier. The floodlights vanish into the surface and keep going -- the water in the sub-surface Antarctic lake is incredibly clear -- but are swallowed up rapidly, giving an impression of infinite, inky depths....
More like a "stunning and unexpected" way to interpret the finding ...
"...except Titan. Attempt no landings there."
"P.S. Also Earth."
Don't call this alien. It's not alien if it lives here. It's terrestrial.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
The endless cascade of statements "Water found on Mars/Underground/Europa, etc, *might* mean life exists or existed there" is getting really annoying. Water, even liquid water, does not seem to be a rarity anymore. It may not even be a qualifier for life. Can we actually start looking for life, please?
Mars apparently had liquid water on the surface and may have liquid water underground now. Curiosity has detected methane outgasings and organics in the soils of Mars. Can we put a shovel in the ground, put some slides under a microscope and see if there are any critters in it?
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At 200 miles we are into the mantle. Any water there would be dissolved into semi soft incandescent rock...clearly it was supposed to be stated as maybe 200 metres or feet (if the discovery was written for the science illiterate who still use such measurements.) I suggest 200 metres sounds highly plausible.