The cryobot camera investigated Ice Stream C, where 150 years ago the ice suddenly stopped flowing in one area in the lower part of the stream. This so-called sticky spot, currently flowing at a rate of about 6.5 feet (2 meters) per year, greatly differs from its neighboring streams, which zoom along at some 1,300 feet (400 meters) per year.

Lowered on a tether through four different boreholes, the camera revealed what appears to be an under-the-ice water system. In places, a water-filled cavity measured roughly 4.6 feet (1.4 meters deep). Researchers had expected no more than a few millimeters.

The camera also spotted rock and other debris embedded in the ice as much as 85 feet (26 meters) above the base. It was believed that frozen debris would be found no higher than 6.5 feet (2 meters) off the base of the ice stream.

"The layered information will turn out to be very interesting," said Carsey. "These layers tell us about processes upstream." By analyzing these ice layers, researchers may learn how ice streams flow and stop flowing.

"With the probe, we have now left the dark ages," said Caltech's Hermann Engelhardt, a senior research associate on the project.

It remains to be seen whether future incarnations of the ice probe will have anything worth finding elsewhere in the solar system.