The Antarctic Hides "Lake Vostok"
Under ~ four kilometers of ice is a lake that hasn't seen the Sun for some 30 million years!!!
Lake Vostok is a body of water 125 miles long and encased in the ice of the Antarctic. It may hold a snapshot of what the Earth's biology was like 30 million years ago. NASA plans to send a probe to Europa, a moon orbiting the planet Jupiter. Europa looks very much like high altitude pictures of Lake Vostok and may have liquid water under a covering of ice several kilometers thick. Lake Vostok may not only give us a look into our biological past, but give us a test bed for probes that may be sent to Europa that orbits Jupiter. Trying the technology that needs to melt through kilometers of ice, keep from contaminating the water below, finding life that may be in the water, and returning the data, will be much less expensive at Lake Vostok than sending probe after probe to Europa. We will not only find out about our Earth's biological past, but save mony and time too. There is a fault zone on the edge of Lake Vostok that might have a volcanic source of heat and chemical energy to keep living organisms alive. If this is true, Europa might have the same Heat/Chemical energy source and make the evolution of life possible. Keep your mind open and look for new developments in this exciting look at Earth's and Europa's life posibilities.