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A breakthrough discovery has been made by Russian scientists after they drilled down through four kilometres of Antarctic ice to Lake Vostok that has been sealed for the last 20 million years.

Professor John Priscu, veteran Antarctic researcher, says that he expects to see “unique organisms” in the lake.

But it was revealed this may not be the only surprise from sub-glacial Lake Vostok, a body of water as large as Lake Ontario.

As scientists began the search for new life, a state-run news agency in Russia claimed that an extraordinary cache of Hitler’s archives may be buried in a secret Nazi ice bunker near the spot where yesterday’s breakthrough was made.

“It is thought that towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazis moved to the South Pole and started constructing a base at Lake Vostok,” claimed RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency.

The news agency cited Admiral Karl Dontiz in 1943 saying: “Germany’s submarine fleet is proud that it created an unassailable fortress for the Fuehrer on the other end of the world, in Antarctica.”

According to German naval archives, months after the Nazis surrendered to the Allies in April 1945, a U-530 submarine arrived at the South Pole from the Port of Kiel.

The crew is rumored to have constructed a still undiscovered ice cave “and supposedly stored several boxes of relics from the Third Reich, including Hitler’s secret files”.

A later claim was that a U-977 submarine delivered remains of Hitler and Eva Braun to Antarctica in the hope they could be cloned from their DNA. The submariners then went to Argentina to surrender, it was claimed.

A breakthrough discovery has been made by Russian scientists after they drilled down through four kilometres of Antarctic ice to Lake Vostok that has been sealed for the last 20 million years

A breakthrough discovery has been made by Russian scientists after they drilled down through four kilometres of Antarctic ice to Lake Vostok that has been sealed for the last 20 million years

Microbiologists say that the lake could offer a glimpse of unique life forms. The project has been closely watched by both NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

One hope is that it will give a glimpse of conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa where water is also believed to exist under a thick ice cover.

“The discovery of microorganisms in Lake Vostok may mean that, perhaps, the first meeting with extraterrestrial life could happen on Europa,” said Dr. Vladimir Kotlyakov, Director of the Geography Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Specialists at the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute will now test a sample of water that has been sucked from the lake, and frozen.

Last year, the expedition stopped 10 to 50 metres short of the lake after the weather closed in and the scientists were forced to abandon the expedition.

Academics say they have found “the only giant super-clean water system on the planet”. They forecast the extraordinary 5,400 cubic kilometres of pristine water will be “twice cleaner than double-distilled water”, and any life will have developed in total isolation.

“We’re not talking a new Loch Ness Monster – though we actually cannot really predict what to expect,” an expedition source told Ria Novosti.

“The lake water is a moving body, and despite being almost 4 km under the ice, there is an oxygen supply, and microorganisms have already been found in the ice drilled from close to the roof of Lake Vostok.”

Professor John Priscu told usnews.com in an email that the crews had been working “round the clock” to finish the project before the Antarctic summer ended, which meant no planes could fly from the remote Vostok Station, where temperatures are currently around minus 66C.

“If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet,” Prof. John Priscu said.

Geothermal heat under the ice keeps the lake liquid, and its conditions are often described as “alien” because they are thought to be akin to the subterranean lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

“I think we’ll find unique organisms,” Prof. John Priscu, a microbiologist at the University of Montana, and a veteran Antarctic researcher who is on the trip told Scientific American.

On January 13, Prof. John Priscu said the team was progressing well, drilling 5.7 ft a day. He said they had switched from an ice drill to a thermal drill to melt through the last 16 to 32 ft of ice.

“This was the plan, but when you’re in the field, things can change,” Prof. John Priscu, who had been communicating with the group from his office in St. Petersburg, said.

“This has never been done before,” he told OurAmazingPlanet.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind drill, a one-of-a-kind borehole, and a one-of-a-kind lake, so I’m sure they’re making decisions on the fly all the time.”

The team had a deadline of Tuesday, before already ice-cold temperatures in the desolate spot drop another 40 degrees centigrade.

Valery Lukin, chief of the Russian Antactic Expedition, said last month: “We do not know what is waiting for us down there.”

On July 21, 1983, temperatures at Vostok Station hit the lowest level ever recorded on Earth – minus 89.2C.

When the breakthrough moment comes they must take care not to contaminate the hidden underground world with bacteria and fluids from the drilling.

To make sure the water stays completely pure, the machinery will not even touch the lake.

Instead suction will be used to suck samples of the unique water into the borehole, where it will freeze before being raised to the surface for analysis.

The team also faces the risk of an explosion with oxygen and nitrogen trapped below.

They are trying to make sure only a small amount of air can escape to avert the risk.

The scientists have been drilling 24 hours a day in three shifts as they race to break through before winter descends.

Environmental groups have criticized the work on the site – and the chemicals used such as kerosene to keep the hole open.

Others have said the site should not be explored but instead left in pristine condition.

Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe that’s been stuck in Earth orbit for two months has crashed down in the Pacific Ocean on late Sunday.

“Phobos-Grunt fragments have crashed down in the Pacific Ocean,” Russia’s Defense Ministry official Alexei Zolotukhin told RIA Novosti, adding that the fragments fell in 1,250 kilometers to the west of the island of Wellington.

The spacecraft fell at about 21:45 on Sunday Moscow time (17:45 GMT).

As of 20.15 Sunday, the spacecraft was moving in the near-Earth orbit with an altitude that varied between 113.8 km at perigee and 133.2 km at apogee, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe that's been stuck in Earth orbit for two months has crashed down in the Pacific Ocean on late Sunday

Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe that's been stuck in Earth orbit for two months has crashed down in the Pacific Ocean on late Sunday

Phobos-Grunt, launched on November 9, was designed to bring back rock and soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos. However, it has been stuck in a so-called support orbit since its engines failed to put it on course for the Red Planet.

The head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, previously said the probe would break up during reentry into the atmosphere and none of the fragments are likely to reach the Earth.

That includes the 13.5-tonne spacecraft’s 7.5 tons of fuel, which are stored in aluminum tanks that are bound to explode upon reentry.

According to NASA, Russia has failed in all 17 of its attempts to study the Red Planet close-up since 1960. The most recent failure before last month occurred in 1996, when Russia lost its Mars-96 orbiter during launch.

Phobos-Grunt, the Russian’s failed Mars probe, is about to fall back to Earth – quite probably on Sunday.

Phobos-Grunt spacecraft has been losing altitude rapidly in recent days and will soon be pulled into the top of the atmosphere where it will be destroyed.

The probe weighed some 13 tons at launch, but very little of this mass should make it through to the surface.

Russian space agency (Roscosmos) estimates suggest only 200kg will survive the fiery plunge.

Orbital debris experts say there are large uncertainties in predicting re-entry events and it is currently not possible to forecast precisely when or where on Earth the final descent will occur.

“The major uncertainty for prediction is the atmospheric density the spacecraft encounters in orbit, but it’s also due to the orientation of the vehicle as it comes in,” explained Prof. Richard Crowther, the UK Space Agency’s chief engineer.

“It can very quickly tumble and if pieces break off – that all changes the trajectory and where debris might impact.”

This is the third high-profile spacecraft re-entry in four months, following the return in September of the American UARS satellite and the German Rosat telescope in October. Both fell over the ocean.

With so much of the Earth’s surface covered by water, there is every chance Phobos-Grunt will do the same.

The mission was supposed to be the most exciting Russian space science venture in decades – an audacious bid to scoop up rocky fragments from the Martian moon Phobos and bring them back for study in Earth laboratories.

Phobos-Grunt was successfully launched on 8 November, entering a “parking orbit” some 345km above the Earth. But the spacecraft then failed to push on to the Red Planet as planned.

For some reason, its big boost engine did not fire. Attempts to contact the spacecraft and diagnose the fault have proved fruitless.

Both professional and amateur tracking groups have been trying to work out when it will fall out of the sky, and many of their estimates are clustering around late Sunday (GMT).

Phobos-Grunt's rate of descent is being monitored by radar and the tracking groups will be using this information to try to narrow the uncertainties as the weekend progresses

Phobos-Grunt's rate of descent is being monitored by radar and the tracking groups will be using this information to try to narrow the uncertainties as the weekend progresses

The spacecraft’s rate of descent is being monitored by radar and the tracking groups will be using this information to try to narrow the uncertainties as the weekend progresses.

A lot of attention has focused on the amount of fuel that Phobos-Grunt is carrying.

Out of the total launch mass of more than 13 tons, in excess of 10 tons was the fuel needed to complete the mission.

Phobos-Grunt’s tanks were filled with the propellants Unsymmetrical DiMethylHydrazine (UDMH) and Dinitrogen TetrOxide (DTO), both of which are toxic.

But, crucially, the tanks are made of aluminium, which has a relatively low melting temperature.

Analysts are confident the tanks will rupture and their contents will be destroyed or dispersed long before any debris can reach the surface.

“Depending on when something breaks up and what it’s made of and how it comes away from the main vehicle, it can either burn up or survive re-entry,” said Prof. Richard Crowther.

“In the case of Phobos-Grunt, it’s a flying fuel tank in many respects, and so most of the mass is fuel which should explode.”

The Russians have had a torrid run of space failures recently, leading the head of the country’s space agency to wonder even if saboteurs were at work.

Western countries, which use Russian rockets to launch their satellites, are just worried though that some systematic failures have started to appear in what has traditionally been a highly regarded space industry.

With their own opportunity to go to Mars now lost, the Russians may decide to put their future interplanetary efforts into joint ventures with the Americans and the Europeans. The Russians have an offer from the US and Europe to join the ExoMars missions to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018.