Camera at South Pole to determine if its night sky is ideal for new telescope The South Pole has become the place to be for scientists searching for high-energy neutrinos or to understand the nature of the dark energy that is pushing the universe apart - some of the grandest mysteries about the universe. But the Pole may offer an ideal vantage point for a different study of the cosmos. Anna Moore and her colleagues would like to get a better look at the cosmic web of material that permeates the universe, made up of long, narrow filaments of galaxies and intergalactic gases separated by enormous voids.
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station sits at the Earth's axis, atop a constantly shifting continental ice sheet several miles thick. Perhaps the world's most remote research facility, the station lies at the heart of a continent cut off from the rest of the globe by a circulating Southern Ocean current. Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest and windiest of the continents – and the least hospitable to human life. But paradoxically, those same conditions combine to make the South Pole a unique scientific laboratory for the study of questions as diverse as "What is the origin of the Universe and how did it develop?" or "What is the status of global climate change?"
This photo is of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station taken every 15 minutes (if a relay satellite is available for transmission) from the roof of the Atmospheric Research Observatory which houses NOAA/CMDL's Clean Air Facility. In order to preserve the life of the camera, it is tilted down onto the snow when the sun is in the field of view, which occurs for several weeks around sunset (March) and sunrise (September) when the sun marches in a circle above the horizon. From mid-April until mid-August the moon and the aurora australis provide the only natural lighting.
The new station, presently under construction, can be seen to the right in the photo; the old (circa 1973) domed station is to the left. The new station is elevated above the snow to prevent it being buried by the drifting snow (the present fate of the old domed station). When the new station is finished in about 2006, the old dome and buildings inside will be removed. The cylindrical object at the end of the station, fondly called the "beer can," is the entrance to the station.