The first signs of the existence of traces of exotic life forms were determined in water samples taken from subglacial Antarctic lake Willens (Lake Whillans)that are covered with ice at a depth of 800 meters. In water samples examined under a microscope in certain light were seen glimpses of control green light that gives special fluorescent paint, sensitive to the presence of DNA molecules. "This is the first proof of life or its traces in the water subglacial Antarctic lake" says Douglas Fox (Douglas Fox), which covers the events connected with the studies of lake Willans held in the framework of the program of American Science Foundation.

Scientists working within the program WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) with samples of water taken from the lake, still have to clarify whether found alive cells of microorganisms and whether they are able to further reproduction. In addition, scientists need to make sure that the detected microorganisms were in the water of the lake from time immemorial, and were not put there by pollution during drilling operations.

Last year, Russian scientists have made the analysis of water samples taken from subglacial Antarctic lake Vostok, which is much deeper than lake Willans. The only organisms that are found in water samples belonged to the species living now on the Earth's surface, and included in the water together with lubricants used in drilling equipment.

A team of Russian and American scientists are drilling wells to subglacial Antarctic lakes in the hope finds in the water of these lakes evidence of there life and the micro-organisms that existed in the water millions of years, without being changed. These microorganisms theoretically could survive due to the presence of nutrients, located on the bottom of the lake and at the expense of oxygen dissolved in water.

Due to the low depth, drilling to the waters of lake Willans lasted only a few days. It turned out that the lake at the point of drilling has a depth of 1.5 to 2 metres, while the expected depth had will be from 6 to 9 meters. Therefore, in the first samples of water were raised almost from the lake bottom, available fossilized remains of diatoms, a tiny marine organisms, which are very long could get into the lake water of the ocean waters.

Studies of lake Willans and other subglacial Antarctic lakes should shed light on the history of climate change in Antarctica and on the globe. And the opening of new kinds of ancient microorganisms can give into the hands of biologists a lot of information about the development of life on Earth. And even if in the waters of the Antarctic lakes is not found anything supernatural and interesting, developed during operations drilling technology can become the basis for the preparation of missions to the ice-covered satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, where according to scientists, covered with ice may exist extraterrestrial life.