Researchers in Antarctica got a surprise visit from a creature in a borehole 185 meters (600 feet) below the Antarctic ice, where there is usually no light. A Lyssianasid amphipod, a shrimp-like creature can be seen swimming in this video. A NASA team had lowered a small video camera to get the first-ever photograph of the underside of an ice shelf when the curious little 7 cm (3- inch) shrimp stopped by to check out the equipment. Scientists say this could challenge the idea of where and how forms of life can survive. Anyone else thinking Europa?
“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there,” NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler told the Associated Press. “It was a shrimp you’d enjoy having on your plate. We were just gaga over it.”
Scientists say this small creature could have a big impact on future exploration and where we look for life, both on Earth and off.
Source: CNN, NASA
He’s kinda cute. I wound’t eat him. 🙂
Reminds me of Hawaiian Red Shrimp, Opae ula, Volcano Shrimp only these antarctic fellows seem to be adapted to extreme low temperatures and low light…
So we travel half way across the Solar system, discover Alien life on Europa and then decide to eat them….
Would this be considered ice-shelf fishing? 🙂
oTay… oTay… I’m seeing it now……. The Titan probe arrives and begins melting its way into the crust with its radiogenically heated drill…. at 5 km depth a shrimp-like life form is encountered..
Reminds me of “Cilia of Gold” by Stephen Baxter.
Let’s hope by the time we are able to dig through the Europan ice that decontamination technology has improved to the point where biological contamination is no longer a risk.
How cute, he looks a little bit lonely 🙂
lisa