Scientists trying to catch a glimpse of what the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica looks like got the surprise of a lifetime when they found a shrimp-like amphipod and a jellyfish thriving in the subfreezing dark water.
Six hundred feet below the ice where no light is found, scientists had believed that nothing more than microbes could exist. But when the NASA team lowered a video camera to the depths to look around, they watched as a curious 3-inch-long Lyssianasid amphipod came swimming by and snagged on to the camera cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle from what they believe to be a jellyfish.
It did have scientists reflecting on the possibilities that if shrimp-like creatures can thrive below 600 feet of sea ice, why not in other hostile places like Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa?
Full story: NASA Finds Deep Ice Holds Living Creatures