

Discovery: Fish Live Beneath Antarctica - r0h1n
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-fish-live-beneath-antarctica1/

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themartorana
If anything, this is just piles on hope (for me) that we'll eventually
discover life on other planets that live in conditions we originally expect to
be much too harsh to support life.

It seems our definition of life, or the conditions required for if to exist,
are constantly challenged. From thermal tubes to 850 km from sun light,
complex life forms exists in some harsh places. I'm willing to bet that we
haven't even scratched the surface of the insane conditions under which life
outside our understanding is able to survive and thrive.

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roadnottaken
Yeah, but liquid water is probably required.

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handpanda
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whillans_Ice_Stream](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whillans_Ice_Stream)

Mentioned in the article, "feeds" the Ross Shelf from the ice on land. Has two
earthquakes every day for unknown reasons.

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doctorpangloss
> But Deep-SCINI also encountered... a handful of other marine invertebrates
> that the team has so far declined to describe.

Why would they decline to describe some animal? That's an odd way to put it.

The only reason I know that deep sea ecosystems are considered sensitive is if
the presence of species suggests oil. E.g., diatom fossils.

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CamperBob2
Another possible reason is suggested by the fact that the sentence sounded
like a line from H. P. Lovecraft.

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pavel_lishin
So, are those fish residents of that area? Or did they happen to just wander
in? If it's typically pitch black there, why would they still have eyes?

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cLeEOGPw
That bothered me too. Perhaps there's an underground tunnel connecting that
area with the ocean?

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CamperBob2
IMHO that almost has to be the case. There is no reason for anything down
there to have eyes.

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zachrose
Neat. Perhaps Europa has something similar.

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virmundi
It might, but keep in mind the history of the planet. Those fish more likely
came from a species that already existed in warmer waters. Over the course of
time they slowly drifted in and adapted. Then they could be shut off from the
outside world and still thrive due to their earlier adaption.

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pavel_lishin
I wonder what the ethical implications would be if we found out for certain
that Europa was a barren world with a salty ocean under the ice, and then
dumped a few tons of marine life into it.

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dTal
I would argue that it would be our _duty_ , given that we value life and
intelligence.

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rustyconover
Nice to see Montana State University showing up in this story. Go Bobcats!

The Solar Physics group has had some great work published in the past, but
having the Priscu[1] group getting results like this is also amazing. Kind of
funny, that they're in the College of Agriculture and working in Antarctica.

[1] - [http://www.montana.edu/priscu/](http://www.montana.edu/priscu/)

