14 DAY TRIAL // As Russian investigators are getting ready to penetrate Antarctic ice sheets all the way to the submerged Lake Vostok, they are also pondering the implications that their achievement will have on space exploration. They say that the habitat may look just like the ocean on Europa.
This is one of the most interesting moons around Jupiter, and has become a target of research due to the fact that it may have an ocean of liquid water buried under a miles-thick ice sheet. Investigating conditions that may exist at that location is currently beyond our technological capabilities.
However, astrobiologists are convinced that studying environments such as Lake Vostok would provide the necessary proxy data to derive at least some conclusions of how Europa's underground may look like, Daily Galaxy reports.
Investigators with the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute explain that Lake Vostok is a unique feature on Earth, primarily due to the fact that it was trapped under about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of ice in Antarctica, 15 to 20 million years ago.
Since that time, it has had no contact with the outside world. This has numerous implications, including the fact that the lake is now its own ecosystem, where evolution followed different rules than in the outside world. At the same time, its waters are now pure. They are kept liquid by Earth's heat.
The Russians are hoping to find “the only giant super-clean water system on the planet […] twice cleaner than double-distilled water.” Measurements estimate that the lake contains about 5,400 cubic kilometers (1,295.5 cubic miles) of water.
This habitat may also contain previously unknown lifeforms, which took a different evolutionary course millions of years ago. This is why the ecosystem in the lake is often referred to as alien.
At this point, the Russian team has its drilling bit about 40 feet (12 meters) above Lake Vostok's water level. From here on out, the group needs to be extremely careful. Penetrating this lake would require just as much finesse as a brain surgery, if the scientists want to avoid contaminating the pristine ecosystem.
Lake Vostok was proposed to exist since the late 19th century, but it was only 15 years ago that sonar and satellite imaging were developed to such an extent that they were able to establish its existence for certain.