Animal Life Discovered Underground Near Hydrothermal Vents in the Deep Pacific Seabed
A recent exploration of the Pacific seabed has led to a groundbreaking discovery of animals living underground near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Researchers from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, led by marine biologist Sabine Gollner, used a deep-diving robot named SuBastian to dig into the ocean floor at the East Pacific Rise. The area is where two tectonic plates meet and gradually spread apart. The team uncovered cavities beneath the seabed harbouring giant tubeworms, snails, and bristle worms. These species were previously known to live around vents but had never been found underground until now.
Unique Ecosystem Under the Seafloor
The research team found that the ocean’s unique hydrothermal vent ecosystem stretches below the seafloor. The vents, known for spewing superheated, chemical-rich water, provide the ideal environment for these animals. Giant tubeworms, which can grow up to 10 feet, live in these extreme conditions. However, unlike other animals, tubeworms don’t consume food in the usual way. They rely on bacteria in their bodies that turn sulfur in the water into energy.
New Insights into Marine Connectivity
The deep-diving robot used arms equipped with chisels to dig through the volcanic rock, revealing cavities below the lava plates. These underground habitats were warm and fluid-filled, providing a haven for life. The discovery shows that larvae from animals living on the seafloor may migrate into these cavities, connecting surface and subsurface ecosystems. According to Sabine Gollner, this changes our view of how interconnected marine ecosystems are, extending our understanding of life beyond just the ocean floor.
This discovery adds to the growing knowledge of life thriving in extreme environments, shedding light on the resilience of marine organisms in the deep ocean.
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Two hikers accidentally discovered a treasure trove in Czech Republic . While taking a stroll in the forests surrounding Zvičina Hill in the Krkonoše Mountains near Poland’s border, they spotted an aluminium can and an iron box protruding slightly above the surface in a stone mound. The containers contained about 600 gold coins and a stunning assortment of gold artifacts. Discovery of this treasure worth more than $340,000 has drawn attention of researchers, arising questions about both the origin of the coins and how did they end up in such a remote location.
Tracing the origin of coins
According to the report by Vojtěch Brádle, a numismatist from the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, the majority of the coins were minted between 1808 and 1915. They originate from the Austria-Hungarian Empire, particularly under the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Some of the coins feature countermarks minted in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The 598 coins cover a broad historical period, containing currency from France, Belgium, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia too. The range of provenances makes it difficult to track how the coins got to where they were, or just why they were stashed away at all. “It is hard to say whether it was Czech, German, or Jewish gold,” said Petr Grulich, director of the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, according to Dailymail.
Theories about the hiding place
There are several theories and speculation about how these coins and artifacts were hidden in such a remote location. One theory suggests that the items were concealed during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia.
Following the Munich Agreement of 1938, large numbers of Jews and Czechs fled their homes in the annexed Sudetenland to escape persecution. Some historians believe that the treasure was buried during this time in an effort to protect it from the invading Nazi forces.
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On may 10th, a semitrailer delivered NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe or IMAP to the Astrotech space operations facility all the way from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation. Tentatively scheduled for launch no earlier than fall 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy, IMAP will be processed fuelled and encapsulated by the technicians in Astrotech facility.
About the mission
According to reported NASA’s blog, The IMAP mission will orbit the Sun at a location called Lagrange Point 1 (L1), which is about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun. From this location, IMAP can measure the local solar wind and scan the distant heliosphere without background from planets and their magnetic fields. The spacecraft will use 10 scientific instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system.
At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, IMAP went through thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic facility that simulates harsh conditions and dramatic temperature changes to simulate the environment during launch, on the journey toward the Sun.
Mission Management
IMAP is the fifth mission in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program portfolio. It is lead by Princeton University professor David J. McComas with an international team of 25 partner institutions. The spacecraft was built and operated from The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Information from this mission are expected to provide early warnings about space weather, which can affect human space explorers and technological systems like satellites and power grids that can affect life on Earth.
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