Shackleton Centenary Expedition
This picture comes via our South Pole Gazette , which scours the internet looking for interesting Antarctic stories. This particular story comes from a blog called The Daily Galaxy.
Apparently, researchers have thawed ice estimated to be perhaps a million years old or more from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica.
Lake Vostok is located beneath four kilometers of ice in East Antarctica. The lake is approximately 250 km long and 50 km wide. The overlying ice provides a continuous paleo-climatic record of 400,000 years, although the lake water itself may have been isolated for as long as 15 million years.
Click here to read more.
Scientists at the University of New South Wales last weekend began an 8000 mile journey with an observatory built at the University to test an interesting hypothesis. The hypothesis is that because of the unique conditons at Antarctica, it is one of the best places in the world for stargazing.
The Plateau Observatory (Plato) shall travel from New South Wales to the Australian Antarctic Territory with amongst other things, an acoustic radar called a snodar, and a fibre-optic spectrometer called Nigel. The Observatory will then send back the salient information to researcher at the University of New South Wales via satellite.
It is expected that the Observatory will be able to look into space 10 times further than the Hubble telescope currently orbiting our planet. Click here for the full story.
In the middle of International Polar Year scientists have produced the most complete map of Antarctica to date. Our congratulations go out to the people at the US Geological Survey, the US National Science Foundation, and the British Antarctic Survey, for a truly astonishing collaborative venture.
Robert Bindschadler from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre said 'Most people have never been to Antarctica, yet Lima (the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica) is a way that we can bring Antarctica to them'.
You can read more about the project by clicking here. To have a look at the Antarctic Lima yourself, click here.
On the MSNBC AllDay blog, Mike Simon an NBC News photojournalist asks the question 'what is the time in Antarctica?' - working out the answer is not as straight-forward as you would imagine. Firstly, you have to bear in mind that Antarctica at certain parts of the year is in 24 hour daylight.
Secondly, Antarctica operates on New Zealand time. Working out how much time he had for a live shot on the Today Show when they were down in Antarctica, and the Today Show studios are in New York requires some logistical and mathematical dexterity. This is especially so when New Zealand is 17 hours ahead of New York.
All this is very interesting to us here at the Shackleton Foundation, as when we go down to Antarctica, the UK is 5 hours ahead of New York which is 17 hours behind New Zealand. This is something that we will have to bear in mind when phoning friends and family to update them on our progress.
Click here for Mike's story.
Scrolling through youtube today we've managed to come across this great South Pole lunar time lapse by Glen Kinoshita. What's great about it is the fantastic pictures of Aurora Australis ocurring at the South Pole itself, which is what you can see in the picture above.
The British Antarctic Survey says that Aurora Australis is created when 'charged particles from disturbances on the Sun interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. High energy particles then cascade into the highest parts of the Earth's atmosphere, ionising gasses and creating a glow much as in a neon advertising sign. Particles with different energies ionise different gasses and hence create different colours to the aurora.'
Clicking here will take you through to our youtube favourites site. Clicking on the video entitled 'South Pole Lunar Time Lapse by Glen Kinoshita' will let you see it for yourself - enjoy!
To sign up to receive daily emails about the Matrix Shackleton Centenary Expedition's progress please click here.
There are 30 entries in this category
Page 4 of 6 | « Previous Next »
Mission Statement
Get a capsule view of who we are, where we're going and why we're doing this by reading our brochure.
View our brochure 
(PDF 2.5mb)
Sir Ernest Shackleton is widely known as one of the most inspirational leaders of the twentieth century. The Shackleton Foundation is a new charitable trust.
Matrix Group are proud to be the Headline Sponsors of the Shackleton Centenary Expedition
The South Pole Gazette is a round-up of Antarctic news stories from around the web.
The SCE receives a small percentage of the price of all Antarctic and Shackleton books bought through the links listed below. Please note that buying through our UK Amazon affiliate account you are directly helping to sponsor the Expedition.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch with the SCE if you have any questions regarding our project, or if you would like to know more about how you can become a sponsor.
The Shackleton Centenary Expedition,
c/o The Lansdowne Club,
9 Fitzmaurice Place,
London
W1J 5JD
Email us at info@shackletoncentenary.org
For press enquiries, please contact Mark Cooper at Van Communications, mark.cooper@vancomms.com
RSS feeds are a way of keeping up to date with your favourite websites by delivering fresh content to your desktop.
The SCE is a not-for-profit venture of the Shackleton Foundation.
All rights reserved © 2006 The Shackleton Centenary Expedition [SCE] except where noted.
Company No. 06107694, Charity No. 1118686.
The Shackleton Centenary Expedition, c/o The Lansdowne Club, 9 Fitzmaurice Place, London W1J 5JD
"Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all." - EHS 1909
Sponsored by Matrix
