A group of Russian researchers discovered a completely new species of bacteria on the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica. Of course, new types of microorganisms are discovered quite often, but Russian experts, apparently, managed to find something out of the ordinary.
The fact is that these bacteria are only eighty-six percent similar to terrestrial unicellular organisms. As for the rest of their deoxyribonucleic acid, it baffled scientists. This gave the authors of the find reason to assume that these microorganisms may have an alien origin.
Our compatriots have just begun to research a new species of unicellular organisms, and so far they have not even named the bacterium, but only assigned it the code "w123-10". The depth of the alleged extraterrestrial microorganisms suggests that they have been here for about five millennia. The bacteria found are completely viable and thrive at minus sixty degrees Celsius.
According to scientists, if the guesses about the alien origin of the bacteria are confirmed, then this could turn mankind's idea of life forms that can inhabit and develop outside the Earth.
Recall that Lake Vostok, located in the area of the Russian scientific station of the same name, is the largest Antarctic subglacial lake. Its length is two hundred and fifty kilometers, width is fifty kilometers, and its area is about sixteen thousand kilometers. The volume of the reservoir is estimated at six thousand three hundred cubic kilometers.
It is noteworthy that in 2004, Russian scientists discovered another bacterium here, unknown at that time. Its depth was more than three and a half kilometers. However, experts had no doubts about the terrestrial origin of that microorganism.