Antarctic scientists are going to drill one of the most isolated lakes on Earth
Source:At a depth of 1200 meters under the Antarctic ice is lake Mercer, a sub-glacial reservoir formed thousands of years ago, and long ago separated from the rest of the world. A project to study the lake and its mysterious contents must begin at the end of this month. The so-called Subglacial Lakes Antarctic Scientific Access, or SALSA, is a project aimed at finding new information about subglacial lakes of Antarctica. It is known that there are at least 400 of these.
Over the next two months, scientists SALSA will explore one of the largest subglacial lakes in West Antarctica — lake Mercer. For this, scientists have to drill to a depth of 1200 meters of ice using a 60-cm corer with hot water. In addition to extracting samples of water and mud, scientists also deployed a remotely operated vehicle — a first for the subglacial lake.
theIsolated world beneath the ice
SALSA Team hopes to learn more about cold extraterrestrial environments: the fact, as in ice-covered reservoirs could receive the hot water; how could life survive in such harsh conditions; environmental factors in which formed these lakes; changes the state of the Antarctic ice sheet. It is important to note that this mission could provide a theoretical basis for future expeditions to the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which could Harbor life.
Lake Mercer was first detected via satellite more than ten years ago, but never investigated by people. The subglacial lake has a size of about 160 square kilometers. However, the depth is small — 10-15 meters. The water in the lake is hovering around the freezing point, but never hardens because of the huge pressure exerted on it by the pile of ice. Lake Mercer, likely to have been formed about 10,000 years ago.
What do you think we'll find in that lake? Tell us in our
Recommended
Can genes create the perfect diet for you?
Diet on genotype can be a way out for many, but it still has a lot of questions Don't know what to do to lose weight? DNA tests promise to help you with this. They will be able to develop the most individual diet, because for this they will use the m...
How many extraterrestrial civilizations can exist nearby?
If aliens exist, why don't we "hear" them? In the 12th episode of Cosmos, which aired on December 14, 1980, co-author and host Carl Sagan introduced viewers to the same equation of astronomer Frank Drake. Using it, he calculated the potential number ...
Why does the most poisonous plant in the world cause severe pain?
The pain caused to humans by the Gimpi-gympie plant can drive him crazy Many people consider Australia a very dangerous place full of poisonous creatures. And this is a perfectly correct idea, because this continent literally wants to kill everyone w...
Related News
The fault in our stars: scientists have named the cause of death of sea monsters of the Earth
For tens of millions of years what the giants were not inhabited the Earth's oceans: 2200-pound turtle, the sea cow the size of a whale shark the size of a bus. But about 2.6 million years ago, they all started to die EN masse. To...
The depths of the Earth are teeming with mysterious life
This may seem fantastic, but deep beneath our feet is a living world. Look under the soil layer, under layer rocks, and find a hot, bubbling underground world teeming with life, where the biosphere on the surface of the blush with...
A ten-year study allowed us to calculate the mass of the underground ecosystem of the Earth
full of life, but a new study suggests that the bulk of this life inhabits is not where you would think. In a large-scale project, which lasted a decade, scientists conduct a census of the largest and at the same time less explor...
Flight to Mars will shorten the life of the astronauts on 2.5 years
At present, humanity has almost everything you need in order to make the longest space mission in history — flight and Mars. In space you can get energy from the Sun, to get water, to replenish oxygen through artificial phot...
New tweezers will allow scientists to conduct a biopsy on living cells
Usually, when scientists wanted to study the molecular contents of individual cells, it had to kill, literally exploding. However, this process provides only one snapshot of the molecular composition of cells at the time of her de...
Life on Earth could appear due to... common salt
If you believe the movies about monsters and old scientific experiments, began with a spark. Not all believe in this history about the origin of life, so continue to look for sources of energy that can turn probioticeski the broth...
'Junk' DNA found to be effective in the fight against cancer
Most medicines are developed on the basis of tumor antigens (TSA). And their search begins with the study of peptides derived from protein-coding exons. However, as we found out, a group of researchers from Canada, such peptides i...
The new theory can explain 95% of the missing space
Scientists from Oxford University may have solved one of the biggest questions in modern physics: their new work combines dark matter and dark energy into a single phenomenon: the liquid, which has a "negative mass". If you try to...
Can I see a black hole? Will we one day?
In the twisted halls of black holes faced two fundamental theories describing our world. Are there any black holes really? It seems that Yes. Is it possible to resolve the fundamental problems that emerge upon closer examination o...
Electronics to a new level displays a two-dimensional material. And that's not graphene
Since the discovery of graphene (a material with two-dimensional structure, which is based on carbon) in 2004, scientists speculated about the presence of other materials with similar properties. Theorists had predicted that boron...
On the spacecraft, sent to explore mercury, the first test of the devices
In mid-October 2019 started the mission BepiColombo, in which the spacecraft with research equipment on Board went to mercury to study the planet. The launch was successful and the spacecraft sent the first pictures shot during th...
Harvard scientists will spend the next year experiment on the cooling of the Earth
talk about a similar study began in the last month. A group of scientists from Harvard and Yale offered to "cheat" the "original but not yet a proven way to combat climate change." But as it turned out, it was only to check the fe...
The large hadron Collider closes for two years
the world's Most powerful particle accelerator went silent. 3 December 2018 particles made its last run, finished the last round at the Large hadron Collider, after which the scientists switched off the machine for two years for s...
An antibiotic prolonged life and protection from neurodegenerative diseases
For the development of new therapies, it is logical to develop new drugs. However, sometimes it happens that even well-known drugs can surprise and help in the treatment of diseases and not only. So this time, as reports the press...
The astronomers measured how much light radiated by the stars in the entire history of the Universe
Astronomers have measured the whole sky, which was leaked to the space in the entire history of the Universe. Get 4 x 1084 particles of light, i.e. photons. It is roughly equivalent to all the photons which would emit if burned 10...
NASA will broadcast the landing of the probe on the asteroid live
we had Not the lander to rest on the Red planet, NASA is already preparing for another spectacular event. The spacecraft Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx for short) ...
What happens if you swallow the head of a LEGO man?
You will not believe, to find out what scientists do at times. This time they decided to find out how long it takes for the pieces of LEGO to pass through the digestive tract of an adult. In the end, LEGO playing boys and girls ol...
Discovered new types of bacteria that feed on greenhouse gases
American scientists from the University of Texas at Austin found at the bottom of the Gulf of California colonies of bacteria, which can help us in the fight against sea pollution and increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the a...
Confirmed: a molecular "switch" will destroy cancer cells without complications
the Cells in our body regularly die and are replaced by new ones. The mechanism of "planned" cell death is called apoptosis and is a completely normal physiological process. But what is typical for normal cells, the cancer cells. ...
Scientists have come up with a risky method of protection from global warming
Global warming is considered one of the probable reasons of destruction of life on Earth. Scientists have observed a sharp change in the climate of the planet and believe that the increase in temperature is inevitable . Lately the...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!