Something's living beneath the Antarctic ice...

Anyone who’s seen the cult sci-fi horror The Thing knows very well that the Antarctic ice sheet is full of shape-shifting aliens just waiting to be defrosted so they can go on a rampage.

Well, thankfully we haven’t found one of those yet. But we have found tiny microbes living a mile-and-a-half under the ice’s surface – the first solid proof of life on the Antarctic continent.

“We were able to prove unequivocally to the world that Antarctica is not a dead continent,” said Professor John Priscu, from Montana State University. And this is a big deal in the science world.

But what have they found?

An earlier British expedition to another Antarctic lake in 2012. (University of Edinburgh/British)

Tiny microbes living in a lake called Lake Whillans, locked deep beneath the polar ice. Many of these belong to a group of microbes completely separate from bacteria, called the Archaea (we know, sounds very Doctor Who, right?)

Trapped in their dark world, the micro-organisms generate energy for growth from ammonium and methane.

How did the scientists reach this bizarre ice-locked world?

A cryoconite hole similar to the one used to explore Lake Whillans. (University of Bristol)

The only way to get to Lake Whillans is to drill through the mile-and-a-half of ice between it and the surface.

The researchers have insisted that the microbes originated in Lake Whillans and were not introduced by contaminated equipment – which can be a real problem with these types of explorations.

“We went to great extremes to ensure that we did not contaminate one of the most pristine environments on our planet while at the same time ensuring that our samples were of the highest integrity,” said Prof Priscu.