After roughly twenty years of effort, a team of Russian researchers announced last Sunday, that they had officially broken through to the surface of Lake Vostok; a large body of freshwater that has been isolated from the world above for the past 20 million years or so, by over 2 miles of Arctic ice. Samples to be taken from the lake later this year could potentially reveal the presence of microbes or other more complex organisms, living in the ancient lake's dark icy waters. If they do, such a discovery would not only expand our understanding of life on our own world, but could potentially provide insight into alien life as well. As Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's Enclades, are both believed to posses similar sub-surface bodies of water.
-CAINE-
VIA: Popsci
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