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Scientists have discovered unusual living creatures nearly 5 kilometers deep within the Earth, revealing a hidden world beneath our feet.

Science Advances: An ecosystem has been discovered at a depth of 5 kilometers, thriving according to its own unique set of rules.
На глубине около 5 километров ученые нашли необычные живые организмы, которые выедают Землю изнутри.

Worms, brought to light from a depth of nearly 5 kilometers

An international team led by Isabella Hrabe de Angelis from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and Emil Ruff from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA conducted a "census" of the Earth's underground.

The researchers confirmed that at this incredible depth lies a vast and highly diverse ecosystem, thriving under its own set of rules. They reported their findings in a paper published in the journal Science Advances. Among the authors were our compatriots – marine biologists Anna Shipunova and Alexey Morozov, currently working in the USA (Marine Biological Laboratory).

The scientists accessed the subterranean world through over 50 wells drilled on land and the ocean floor worldwide. Creatures from the depths were found even at a depth of about 5 kilometers (4375 meters). They were first "extracted" from there back in 2018 while working on the Deep Carbon Observatory project.

During past and current research, it was discovered: the depths host all sorts of tiny life forms — bacteria and microorganisms. But worms also turn up — for instance, nematodes.

Locations of the boreholes through which scientists accessed the underground "animal world"

The underground communities shocked the scientists – sometimes the inhabitants of the depths were more diverse than those on the surface. This was especially true beneath the ocean floor. Most were found to be similar to their "surface counterparts." However, they led a fundamentally different lifestyle.

Not "seeing" sunlight, these underground residents derive energy through chemical reactions by oxidizing inorganic substances. In other words, they feed on the surrounding rock — essentially gnawing at the Earth from the inside. Some even produce methane.

Underground bacteria that produce methane

The most astonishing fact: these "gnawers" live in a different time dimension. Their life pace is geological. Cells in the deep layers of the biosphere divide only once every thousand years.

- The inhabitants of the depths conserve energy, - explains Ruff, - they have evolved to expend a minimum on metabolism and reproduction.

Scientists are still unclear about where life in the depths originated. Did it initially form there and then rise to the surface — to the Sun, under which it's certainly much more comfortable? Or vice versa? But how did microorganisms manage to penetrate through the thick layers of rock?

Another mystery is that the "gnawers" living beneath the American continent are no different from those that have burrowed under Africa. Do underground communities somehow migrate?

According to scientists’ estimates, the total weight of the underground inhabitants reaches between 15 to 23 billion tons. They occupy a volume of 2 billion cubic kilometers, and perhaps even more.

- Understanding deep life on Earth could serve as a model for determining whether life existed on Mars and if it has persisted, - continues Ruff.

To clarify: the scientist believes that Martian microbes, or perhaps even larger entities, could also be hidden in their own depths. After all, there is currently no one on the surface.

Unfortunately, we can only learn about the fate of life on Mars by getting there. We'll have to drill wells too...

In any case, the likelihood that our Earthly bacteria are not alone in the Universe has slightly increased.

Aliens might inhabit the depths

MEANWHILE

There may be more than just bacteria hiding underground

Many are convinced: aliens are already here on Earth. They are the ones behind the UFO phenomena.

However, the mystery remains: where do these extraterrestrials come from if their worlds are separated from ours by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of light years? You can't just fly back and forth, even moving faster than light.

Three Americans — Michael P. Masters, a professor of anthropology at Montana Technological University, along with his colleagues from Harvard University, Tim Lomas and Brendan Case — proposed a simple and, in their view, obvious explanation: aliens do not traverse interstellar distances. They are hiding somewhere nearby. For instance, in the depths of the Earth.

"The hypothesis, which at first glance seems unlikely, is at least possible. It shouldn't be dismissed outright," the scientists write in the journal Philosophy and Cosmology. "After all, the depths are hardly explored. There is plenty of space for aliens to hide. More precisely – to exist covertly."

The researchers advocate for the so-called cryptoterrestrial hypothesis. Its essence: extraterrestrials reached Earth millions, or even hundreds of millions, of years ago — long before local intelligent species like Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons appeared.

How, from where, and on what did the "alien guests" arrive? The scientists did not delve into such details. Well, they arrived somehow, already possessing advanced technologies. They stayed. And when humans appeared and reached an acceptable level of development, the aliens for some reason retreated into the depths. Why? The authors did not clarify this either.

But what if extraterrestrials really have established themselves in the depths of our planet? Where might the portals leading to their bases be located? Details in our article.