Amid -40.7°C cold, Antarctica lake teems with life, raises hopes of finding life beyond Earth

A groundbreaking discovery beneath Antarctica’s ice is reshaping our understanding of where life can exist. What was once dismissed as a frozen, lifeless expanse has been exposed as a thriving ecosystem, posing a fundamental question: if life endures here, where else might it survive?

Enigma Lake, long thought to be an icy tomb, turns out to hold liquid water beneath 12 meters of solid ice, despite surface temperatures plunging to -40.7°C. Within this hidden lake, scientists have uncovered a vibrant microbial community defying the harshest conditions on Earth.

An international team from Italy, Australia, and the United States mapped the lake using ground-penetrating radar, then drilled into the ice in 2019 and 2020 to extract water samples. Their analyses have blown apart old assumptions about the frozen continent.

Leading the charge are David Pearce, environmental biologist at the University of Tasmania, and Michael McClung, glaciologist at the University of Alaska. Together, they’re probing a mystery few imagined: how does life persist in such an unrelenting environment?

The true revelation lies in the lake’s inhabitants. Researchers identified microorganisms—including Patescibacteria, a little-known group with reduced genomes—thriving in the lake’s frigid waters. As the study notes, “Patescibacteria often need to interact with other organisms to survive, either symbiotically or parasitically.”

Their survival in this forbidding place forces a rethink of biology’s boundaries. How do these microbes sustain themselves in an ecosystem once thought utterly barren?

Scientists suspect the nearby Amorphous Glacier plays a key role. Meltwater from the glacier may seep into Enigma Lake, keeping it liquid despite sub-zero extremes. In January 2020, researchers documented a surge of meltwater flowing into the lake, sparking debate over how water that’s been isolated for millennia remains chemically stable.

Perhaps most astonishing is the lake’s stable chemistry after untold ages beneath the ice. This resilience fuels speculation about alien life: could similar hidden oceans on Jupiter’s moon Europa—or beneath Mars’ surface — harbour life forms like those in Enigma Lake?

Astrobiologists are already eyeing these Antarctic microbes as models for extraterrestrial survival.