On 5 February 2012, a Russian drill team at Vostok Station punched through the last metres of ice and tapped into a body of water that had been sealed beneath the ice for millions of years.

How this affects you

The discovery of life in Lake Vostok, a subglacial lake sealed for 15 million years, suggests that life can persist in extreme conditions without sunlight, providing insights for the search for life on other planets like Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This finding directly informs NASA missions and expands our understanding of habitability beyond Earth.