According to a new scientific study, microbes can actually survive inside ice crystals around three kilometers thick for 100,000 years. But the most stunning part of the said research is that the scientists are now beginning to understand how these tiny life forms are able to achieve the feat.

"It is not life as we generally think about it. They are just sitting there surviving, hoping that the ice will melt," University of California Berkeley graduate student Robert Rohde commented. During the course of the study, Rohde was helped by Buford Price, a physicist from the same university.

Microbes are able to generate a tiny film of liquid water under harsh conditions. Many gases such as oxygen, hydrogen, and methane will then diffuse themselves around this film that will eventually serve as the microbes' food. They are able to resist temperatures down to -55 degrees Celsius and pressures of 300 atmospheres.

Price said that this study could lead to further understanding of extra-terrestrial life in the future. The physicist explained that the latest finding can probably explain the high heterogeneous distribution of methane in the Mars atmosphere. He then added:

The main reason for this is that most of the planets and moons in our solar system are icy worlds. Thus any type of survival mechanism and possible avenue for metabolism in cold and very cold environments would be a great evolutionary trait for any organism on an icy world.