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"We've found some really bizarre things - things that we've never seen before," said Richard Hoover of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Hoover and Dr. S.S. Abyzov of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been examining deep ice core samples from the Vostok Station about 1,000 km (620 miles) from the South Pole.
The objects have fanciful names - like Mickey Mouse and Klingon (right) - based on passing resemblances. Hoover expects that most will fall into known categories of microorganisms as he and Abyzov study the images.
"We're exploring a new world," Hoover said. "Until we get a lot more experience, we're going to see brand new things all the time."
The ice harboring these finds is as old as 400,000 years, depending on the depth. Russian scientists at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, developed the technology for drilling ice cores without contaminating the samples. Since 1974, they have worked at Vostok Station, extracting cores from ever greater depths.
The objects have fanciful names - like Mickey Mouse and Klingon (right) - based on passing resemblances. Hoover expects that most will fall into known categories of microorganisms as he and Abyzov study the images.
"We're exploring a new world," Hoover said. "Until we get a lot more experience, we're going to see brand new things all the time."
The ice harboring these finds is as old as 400,000 years, depending on the depth. Russian scientists at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, developed the technology for drilling ice cores without contaminating the samples. Since 1974, they have worked at Vostok Station, extracting cores from ever greater depths.