Lake Hidden For 20 Million Years Reached

(NewsCore) - A team of Russian scientists successfully drilled down to an "alien" lake deep below the ice in Antarctica that was hidden for an estimated 20 million years, the Ria Novosti news agency reported Monday.

"Yesterday [Sunday], our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters [12,360 feet] and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake," the report quoted an unnamed scientific source as saying.

Scientists hope Lake Vostok could reveal new forms of life and help them understand the extreme conditions of Mars and Europa, Jupiter's moon, which researchers suspect could be hiding a liquid ocean beneath its frozen upper crust.

The Russian team had not been heard from for more than a week, raising fears for its safety.

Temperatures were dropping below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the clock was ticking before the onset of the Antarctic winter, when the temperature will get twice as cold. Vostok Station boasts the lowest recorded temperature on Earth: minus 129 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Russian team was expected to bring water up through the hole and let it freeze over the winter. The following year, the team will be able to start research on what they find, John Priscu, a microbiologist with Montana State University who has worked on a similar Antarctic exploration program, told FOXNews.com last week.

The Lake Vostok project has been years in the making, with initial drilling at the massive lake -- 6,060 square miles (15,690 square km) -- starting in 1998. The scientists were quickly able to reach 11,800 feet (3,600 meters), but had to stop due to concerns of possible contamination of the never-before-touched lake water.

To make sure the water would not be polluted, the scientists agreed to drill until a sensor warned them of free water. At that point, they took out the kerosene that was being used to keep the borehole from freezing and allowed lake water to rise through the hole due to pressure from below.

Scientists from around the world are racing to explore the mysteries of Antarctica and there are two similar digs underway.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey is on a competing mission, set to plumb the depths of Lake Ellsworth, one of a string of more than 370 lakes beneath Antarctica that may soon see light for the first time. And a third Antarctic expedition -- a study of the subglacial Whillans Ice Stream -- mainly features U.S. scientists.

Read more: FoxNews