Polar drilling 'round the clock'

THE team of Bristol-led scientists digging 3.5km in a search for life beneath the ice of Antarctica have passed "the point of no return".

The scientists, who began drilling through the ice using a specially designed hot water drill on Wednesday, yesterday reached the point where they would not have enough fuel to restart the process.

A spokesman for the team said: "We are now committed, having gone past the point of no return.

"If anything stops working now, water could freeze in the pipes and the whole programme could come to a halt.

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"So please keep us in your thoughts as we work round the clock for the next seven to ten days."

The team of 12 scientists, led by Bristol University's Professor Martin Siegert, pictured, are firing hot water at the ice to drill 3.5km beneath the surface – with the aim of inserting a specially-designed probe into the ice-locked Lake Ellsworth – a liquid water lake which has been hidden from the outside world for more than half a million years.

The water in the buried lake is kept liquid by heat from geothermal springs, and the scientists believe life may exist in this most remote environment.

Professor Siegert has been planning the extraordinary experiment for 16 years.

If the team can prove the microbes exist, it could have implications for astrophysicists' predictions for where life could exist on other planets.