An Icy Desert: The World That Is Antarctica

If adventure is your middle name, then grab your supplies, a thick furry coat, and let’s go diving deep into the continent known as Antarctica.

Nearly twice the size of Australia, Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent on Earth. Over the years, many countries have built research stations there. They have yearly crews of scientists who stay there and conduct experiments. If you want to get there, you need to be one of them. And get ready to face some extreme weather conditions too. Though it rarely snows or rains in Antarctica, it’s still an icy desert since temperatures rarely reach above freezing, so the snow never melts.

Since Antarctica is also known as the South Pole, it’s one of the “balancing points” for the tilted axis that the Earth rotates on and barely moves all year. There are only two seasons here, summer and winter. From March to October, it’s winter there. However, it’s far from close to the kind we experience on the mainland. In the coldest regions, winter temperatures could reach negative 60 degrees Celsius. Only a skeleton group remains to maintain the stations at this time. The real drama starts in October.

Summer in Antarctica is still usually below freezing, though it’s still a drastic improvement from winter. From October to February, precious time gets used to transport supplies to the researchers and take samples back to labs for more study. Some of these would get transported by big vessels, and others flown by planes. And it’s also a time when the Xuelong set sail.

There are two such ice-breaking vessels by China. They carry supplies and people around to the five stations established around Antarctica. First up is the Zhongshan station. It’s crucial to do all this from the start of summer to mid-winter when transportation and communication are at it’s strongest. Internet in these stations isn’t like those we have back in our own homes and offices. In Antarctica, the Internet gets provided by satellites. Anyway, why bother taking such a risk in these extreme temperatures?

The same question gets asked about space exploration, too. However, it’s more important than you might think. There are entire lakes spanning hundreds of meters deep, hidden below thick sheets of ice, that can only get seen by satellite imaging. Some studies suggest that there might even be tiny organisms living in those deep caverns. Who knows? If things can theoretically survive in those harsh conditions, it could just be the case that they can also live in outer space. Sometimes, the truth could be hiding in plain sight, literally. That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you, and remember, the next time you feel cold, it’s far better than that in the Antarctic!