50th Anniversary of First Flight to Land at the South Pole
03.11.2006 - Other
Fifty years ago, on Oct. 31, 1956, at 8 34 p.m. local time, the first aircraft ever to touch down at the South Pole skied to a halt atop the Antarctic ice sheet. The commemoration of this event coincides with a newly launched webcam that will allow the worldwide public to see what conditions confront scientists at the bottom of the world.
That first landing was followed almost immediately by "Seabees," U.S. Navy construction workers using airdropped materials to build the first permanent station at the Pole: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
From there astronomers use sophisticated telescopes to peer into the depths of space and create images of the universe in its infancy. Scientists also use one of the world's most sensitive seismic stations to record rumbles through the Earth's crust produced by earthquakes. And they can use samples of the Earth's purest air as a baseline to study atmospheric chemistry.
