After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica,Russian scientists have reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years,a lake that may hold life from the distant past and clues to search for life on other planets. Reaching Lake Vostok is a major discovery avidly anticipated by scientists around the world hoping that it may allow a glimpse into microbial life forms,not visible to the naked eye,that existed before the Ice Age. It may also provide precious material that would help look for life on the ice-crusted moons of Jupiter and Saturn or under Mars polar ice caps where conditions could be similar. Its like exploring another planet,except this one is ours, Columbia University glaciologist Robin Bell said by email. Valery Lukin,the head of Russias Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI),which is in charge of the mission,said in Wednesdays statement that his team reached the lakes surface on Sunday. Lukin has previously compared the Lake Vostok effort to the moon race that the Soviet Union lost to the US,telling the Russian media he was proud that Russia will be the first this time. Although far from being the worlds deepest lake,the severe weather of Antarctica and the locations remoteness made the project challenging. There is no other place on Earth that has been in isolation for more than 20 million years, said Lev Savatyugin,a researcher with the AARI. Its a meeting with the unknown. Savatyugin said scientists hope to find primeval bacteria that could expand the human knowledge of the origins of life. We need to see what we have here before we send missions to ice-crusted moons,like Jupiters moon Europa, he said. Lake Vostok is 250 km long and 50 km across at its widest point. It lies about 3.8 km beneath the surface and is the largest in a web of nearly 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica.
