The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

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Fathoming Life Under the Ice
Features / Artists and Writers Program
Tuesday July 17, 2018
This past austral summer season, two artists who specialize in science communication visited McMurdo Station to begin a multi-media, multi-faceted project with the aim of improving public knowledge of Antarctic marine life....

Neutrinos Point The Way To Cosmic Rays
Science / Space and Atmospheric Physics
Thursday July 12, 2018
Using data gathered by the National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, scientists have for the first time identified a super massive black hole as the source...

IceBridge Flies High
Science / Ice and Snow
Wednesday June 27, 2018
In late 2017, a specially modified airplane contracted by NASA crisscrossed Antarctica, mapping the ice below and filling in a data gap left by a now-defunct NASA satellite called ICESat, which measured...

A Chemical Detective Story: Why is Don Juan Pond So Salty?
Science / Earth
Wednesday June 13, 2018
During winter, nearly everything in Antarctica freezes solid. Except Don Juan Pond. Though only about twice the area of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and barely a foot deep, Don Juan Pond is...

We Are All Scientists
Features / Operations
Thursday June 07, 2018
In the midst of the austral winter, as total darkness and below-zero temperatures encompass McMurdo Station, the pace of science slows somewhat. A science fair organized by station residents in their free...

A World-Class Classroom At The Bottom Of The World
Science / The Biological World
Thursday May 31, 2018
For early-career scientists, learning the ropes in Antarctica can mean donning actual safety lines and harnesses. This past austral summer, 20 students traveled to the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station to conduct...

Marine technician Amy Belcher guides a load of supplies onto a small Zodiac raft to deliver to penguin researchers at Cape Shirreff.

Podcast: Marine Operations
Features / Operations
Wednesday May 23, 2018
The Antarctic Sun is taking a behind-the-scenes look at the workers and what they do to make science at the bottom of the world possible. This Episode: Marine Operations. On board the U.S. Antarctic Program's two research vessels, the marine projects coordinator and the marine technicians make sure that everything goes smoothly.

Benjamin Van Mooy (right) and Jamie Collins take water samples from under the ice in Arthur harbor

Ultraviolet Radiation Gives Microbes Mixed Messages
Science / The Biological World
Tuesday May 15, 2018
Ultraviolet rays from the sun may be disrupting the natural ecology of the waters of Antarctica's Southern Ocean. A research team, led by a scientist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, is taking a close look at the effects that excess UV radiation at the cellular level to see what it means for marine ecosystems and the regional food web.

The fossilized bones of a small lizard-like creature from about 250-million years ago

Paleo Gondwanaland Was Full Of Lystrosaurs
Science / Earth
Thursday May 03, 2018
An expedition studying the aftermath of one of Earth's greatest global extinctions collected hundreds of prehistoric animal fossils from the mountains of Antarctica this past season. Ten researchers spent nearly six weeks camped in the Transantarctic Mountains, collecting fossils that formed following the great extinction at the end of the Permian era.

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