The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica - Current Science Headlines

Science—Earth

Researcher Kattie Dugger walks among nesting Adélie penguins on Beaufort Island in the Ros Sea.

Spreading Out

Scientists from the United States and New Zealand, using a mix of old and new technology, found that the population size of an Adélie penguin colony on Antarctica's Beaufort Island near the southern Ross Sea increased 84 percent over a 50-year period as the ice fields retreated.

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Movers and Shakers
Once upon a time, in the age of brick-sized mobile phones and big-hair bands, a high-precision GPS receiver was a high-priced commodity. Today, university-governed organization UNAVCO supports research around the world with these and other high-precision instruments, including Antarctica.

Under the Covers
Scientists revealed what lies underneath Antarctica's massive ice sheets in unprecedented detail in a new map that was published in the open-access journal The Cryosphere last month. Researchers say it will be an important tool in modeling future sea-level rise.

Roving Around Erebus
Twenty years after an arachnid-shaped robot stalled out on its descent into the noxious crater of an Antarctic volcano, an altogether different rover could be found on the slightly safer slopes of Erebus volcano scanning for ice caves.

Life Under the Ice
It's life. But is it life as we know it? That question will be answered in the months ahead, but it appears that the first evidence that something lives in a lake covered by nearly a kilometer of ice in West Antarctica emerged at the end of January.

Spreading Out

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