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91-552: At all times, the entire Southern Sky is visible from the geographic South Pole ; less of the Southern Sky is visible the further north the observer is located. The northern counterpart is the northern celestial hemisphere . In the context of astronomical discussions or writing about celestial mapping , it may also simply then be referred to as the Southern Hemisphere. For the purpose of celestial mapping,

182-544: A Russian scientific expedition Arktika 2007 made the first ever manned descent to the ocean floor at the North Pole, to a depth of 4.3 km (2.7 mi), as part of the research programme in support of Russia's 2001 extended continental shelf claim to a large swathe of the Arctic Ocean floor. The descent took place in two MIR submersibles and was led by Soviet and Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov . In

273-530: A day apart, with Gamme starting first, but completing according to plan the last few kilometers together. As Gamme traveled alone he thus simultaneously became the first to complete the task solo. On 28 December 2018, Captain Lou Rudd became the first Briton to cross the Antarctic unassisted via the south pole, and the second person to make the journey in 56 days. On 10 January 2020, Mollie Hughes became

364-508: A flight from Chicago to Beijing may come close as latitude 89° N, though because of prevailing winds return journeys go over the Bering Strait . In recent years journeys to the North Pole by air (landing by helicopter or on a runway prepared on the ice) or by icebreaker have become relatively routine, and are even available to small groups of tourists through adventure holiday companies. Parachute jumps have frequently been made onto

455-460: A higher elevation). The South Pole is at an altitude of 9,200 feet (2,800 m) but feels like 11,000 feet (3,400 m). Centripetal force from the spin of the planet throws the atmosphere toward the equator. The South Pole is colder than the North Pole primarily because of the elevation difference and for being in the middle of a continent. The North Pole is a few feet from sea level in

546-479: A journey to the Pole and back while traveling along the direct line – the only strategy that is consistent with the time constraints that he was facing – is contradicted by Henson's account of tortuous detours to avoid pressure ridges and open leads . The British explorer Wally Herbert , initially a supporter of Peary, researched Peary's records in 1989 and found that there were significant discrepancies in

637-513: A modified Douglas C-47 Skytrain at the North Pole. Some Western sources considered this to be the first landing at the Pole until the Soviet landings became widely known. The United States Navy submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) crossed the North Pole on 3 August 1958. On 17 March 1959 USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced at the Pole, breaking through the ice above it, becoming the first naval vessel to do so. The first confirmed surface conquest of

728-462: A party over the ice and reached latitude 86° 34’ on 25 April, setting a new record by beating Nansen's result of 1895 by 35 to 40 km (22 to 25 mi). Cagni barely managed to return to the camp, remaining there until 23 June. On 16 August, the Stella Polare left Rudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway. The US explorer Frederick Cook claimed to have reached

819-472: A result of this journey, which formed a section of the three-year Transglobe Expedition 1979–1982, Fiennes and Burton became the first people to complete a circumnavigation of the world via both North and South Poles, by surface travel alone. This achievement remains unchallenged to this day. The expedition crew included a Jack Russell Terrier named Bothie who became the first dog to visit both poles. In 1985 Sir Edmund Hillary (the first man to stand on

910-701: A symbolic act of visitation, the Russian flag was placed on the ocean floor exactly at the Pole. The expedition was the latest in a series of efforts intended to give Russia a dominant influence in the Arctic according to The New York Times . In 2009 the Russian Marine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE-2009) with Vasily Elagin as a leader and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov and Nikolay Nikulshin reached

1001-530: A wandering of the Pole across the Earth's surface, by a range of a few metres. The wandering has several periodic components and an irregular component. The component with a period of about 435 days is identified with the eight-month wandering predicted by Euler and is now called the Chandler wobble after its discoverer. The exact point of intersection of the Earth's axis and the Earth's surface, at any given moment,

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1092-519: Is because the US flies its resupply missions (" Operation Deep Freeze ") out of McMurdo Station , which is supplied from Christchurch , New Zealand. Due to its exceptionally harsh climate, there are no native resident plants or animals at the South Pole. Off-course south polar skuas and snow petrels are occasionally seen there. In 2000 it was reported that microbes had been detected living in

1183-423: Is called the "instantaneous pole", but because of the "wobble" this cannot be used as a definition of a fixed North Pole (or South Pole) when metre-scale precision is required. It is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates (latitude, longitude, and elevations or orography ) to fixed landforms. However, given plate tectonics and isostasy , there is no system in which all geographic features are fixed. Yet

1274-534: Is currently buried beneath the snow and ice in the vicinity of the Pole. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 80), following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting . The precise location of the tent is unknown, but based on calculations of the rate of movement of the ice and the accumulation of snow, it is believed, as of 2010, to lie between 1.8 and 2.5 km (1.1 and 1.5 miles) from

1365-407: Is geometrically undefined and irrelevant. When a longitude is desired, it may be given as 0°. At the South Pole, all directions face north. For this reason, directions at the Pole are given relative to "grid north", which points northward along the prime meridian . Along tight latitude circles, clockwise is east, and counterclockwise is west, opposite to the North Pole . The Geographic South Pole

1456-533: Is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice . The sea depth at the North Pole has been measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft) by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007 and at 4,087 m (13,409 ft) by USS Nautilus in 1958. This makes it impractical to construct a permanent station at the North Pole ( unlike

1547-423: Is marked by a stake in the ice alongside a small sign; these are repositioned each year in a ceremony on New Year's Day to compensate for the movement of the ice. The sign records the respective dates that Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, followed by a short quotation from each man, and gives the elevation as "9,301 FT. ". A new marker stake is designed and fabricated each year by staff at

1638-456: Is partially buried due to snow storms, and the entrance to the dome had to be regularly bulldozed to uncover it. More recent buildings are raised on stilts so that the snow does not build up against their sides. In most places on Earth, local time is determined by longitude , such that the time of day is more-or-less synchronised to the perceived position of the Sun in the sky (for example, at midday

1729-495: Is presently located on the continent of Antarctica , although this has not been the case for all of Earth's history because of continental drift . It sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 m (9,301 ft) above sea level, and is located about 1,300 km (810 mi) from the nearest open sea at the Bay of Whales . The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 m (8,900 ft) thick at

1820-402: Is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island , off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km (430 mi) away, though some perhaps semi-permanent gravel banks lie slightly closer. The nearest permanently inhabited place is Alert on Ellesmere Island , Canada, which is located 817 km (508 mi) from the Pole. While the South Pole lies on a continental land mass , the North Pole

1911-809: The Geographic North Pole , Terrestrial North Pole or 90th Parallel North , is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole . The North Pole is by definition the northernmost point on the Earth, lying antipodally to the South Pole . It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as

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2002-641: The Geological Survey of Canada and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research . Further stops for sample collections were on multi-year sea ice at 86°N, at Cape Columbia and Ward Hunt Island . On 4 May 1990 Børge Ousland and Erling Kagge became the first explorers ever to reach the North Pole unsupported, after a 58-day ski trek from Ellesmere Island in Canada, a distance of 800 km. On 7 September 1991

2093-783: The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System . As early as the 16th century, many prominent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea, which in the 19th century was called the Polynya or Open Polar Sea . It was therefore hoped that passage could be found through ice floes at favorable times of

2184-624: The International Geophysical Year and has been continuously staffed since then by research and support personnel. After Amundsen and Scott, the next people to reach the South Pole overland (albeit with some air support) were Edmund Hillary (4 January 1958) and Vivian Fuchs (19 January 1958) and their respective parties, during the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition . There have been many subsequent expeditions to arrive at

2275-587: The airship Norge . Norge , though Norwegian-owned, was designed and piloted by the Italian Umberto Nobile . The flight started from Svalbard in Norway, and crossed the Arctic Ocean to Alaska. Nobile, with several scientists and crew from the Norge , overflew the Pole a second time on 24 May 1928, in the airship Italia . The Italia crashed on its return from the Pole, with the loss of half

2366-515: The south celestial pole for either to be visible from Central Europe . Of the 88 modern constellations , 45 are only visible from the Southern celestial hemisphere with 15 other constellations along the equator and have portions on the northern hemisphere. The southern constellations are: The first telescopic chart of the Southern Sky was made by the English astronomer Edmond Halley , from

2457-402: The terrestrial hemispheres of Earth itself. From the South Pole , in good visibility conditions, the Southern Sky features over 2,000 fixed stars that are easily visible to the naked eye , while about 20,000 to 40,000 with the aided eye. In large cities, about 300 to 500 stars can be seen depending on the extent of light and air pollution . The farther north, the fewer are visible to

2548-676: The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was −12.3 °C (9.9 °F) on Christmas Day, 2011, and the lowest was −82.8 °C (−117.0 °F) on 23 June 1982 (for comparison, the lowest temperature directly recorded anywhere on earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station on 21 July 1983, though −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) was measured indirectly by satellite in East Antarctica between Dome A and Dome F in August 2010 ). Mean annual temperature at

2639-473: The Arctic Ocean under the polar ice cap from September to November 1984 in company with one of her sister ships, the attack submarine USS Pintado (SSN-672) . On 12 November 1984 Gurnard and Pintado became the third pair of submarines to surface together at the North Pole. In March 1990, Gurnard deployed to the Arctic region during exercise Ice Ex '90 and completed only the fourth winter submerged transit of

2730-639: The Bering and Seas. Gurnard surfaced at the North Pole on 18 April, in the company of the USS Seahorse (SSN-669) . On 6 May 1986 USS Archerfish (SSN 678) , USS Ray (SSN 653) and USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) surfaced at the North Pole, the first tri-submarine surfacing at the North Pole. On 21 April 1987 Shinji Kazama of Japan became the first person to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle . On 18 May 1987 USS Billfish (SSN 676) , USS Sea Devil (SSN 664) and HMS Superb (S 109) surfaced at

2821-509: The Geographic South Pole is defined as the southern point of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface (the other being the Geographic North Pole ). However, Earth's axis of rotation is actually subject to very small "wobbles" ( polar motion ), so this definition is not adequate for very precise work. The geographic coordinates of the South Pole are usually given simply as 90°S, since its longitude

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2912-657: The Geographic South Pole were the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his party on 14 December 1911. Amundsen named his camp Polheim and the entire plateau surrounding the Pole King Haakon VII Vidde in honour of King Haakon VII of Norway . Robert Falcon Scott returned to Antarctica with his second expedition, the Terra Nova Expedition , initially unaware of Amundsen's secretive expedition. Scott and four other men reached

3003-663: The Geographical North Pole. On 1 March 2013 the Russian Marine Live-Ice Automobile Expedition (MLAE 2013) with Vasily Elagin as a leader, and a team of Afanasy Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Alexey Shkrabkin, Andrey Vankov, Sergey Isayev and Nikolay Kozlov on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs—Yemelya-3 and Yemelya-4—started from Golomyanny Island (the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago) to

3094-684: The German research vessel Polarstern and the Swedish icebreaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe. Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later, with the Healy . In 1998, 1999, and 2000, Lada Niva Marshs (special very large wheeled versions made by BRONTO, Lada/Vaz's experimental product division) were driven to

3185-721: The North Pole across drifting ice of the Arctic Ocean. The vehicles reached the Pole on 6 April and then continued to the Canadian coast. The coast was reached on 30 April 2013 (83°08N, 075°59W Ward Hunt Island ), and on 5 May 2013 the expedition finished in Resolute Bay , NU. The way between the Russian borderland (Machtovyi Island of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, 80°15N, 097°27E) and the Canadian coast (Ward Hunt Island, 83°08N, 075°59W) took 55 days; it

3276-476: The North Pole after the ever first landing of four heavy and one light aircraft onto the ice at the North Pole. The expedition members — oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov , meteorologist Yevgeny Fyodorov , radio operator Ernst Krenkel , and the leader Ivan Papanin — conducted scientific research at the station for the next nine months. By 19 February 1938, when the group was picked up by the ice breakers Taimyr and Murman , their station had drifted 2850 km to

3367-422: The North Pole and spent 18 hours there. In July 2007 British endurance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh completed a 1 km (0.62 mi) swim at the North Pole. His feat, undertaken to highlight the effects of global warming , took place in clear water that had opened up between the ice floes. His later attempt to paddle a kayak to the North Pole in late 2008, following the erroneous prediction of clear water to

3458-452: The North Pole in recent years. The temporary seasonal Russian camp of Barneo has been established by air a short distance from the Pole annually since 2002, and caters for scientific researchers as well as tourist parties. Trips from the camp to the Pole itself may be arranged overland or by helicopter. The first attempt at underwater exploration of the North Pole was made on 22 April 1998 by Russian firefighter and diver Andrei Rozhkov with

3549-402: The North Pole may become seasonally ice-free because of Arctic ice shrinkage , with timescales varying from 2016 to the late 21st century or later. Attempts to reach the North Pole began in the late 19th century, with the record for " Farthest North " being surpassed on numerous occasions. The first undisputed expedition to reach the North Pole was that of the airship Norge , which overflew

3640-501: The North Pole on 21 April 1908 with two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim is not widely accepted. The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to US Navy engineer Robert Peary , who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah, and Ooqueah. However, Peary's claim remains highly disputed and controversial. Those who accompanied Peary on

3731-485: The North Pole on foot (albeit with the aid of dog teams and airdrops ). They continued on to complete the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean ;– and by its longest axis, Barrow, Alaska , to Svalbard  – a feat that has never been repeated. Because of suggestions (later proven false) of Plaisted's use of air transport, some sources classify Herbert's expedition as the first confirmed to reach

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3822-453: The North Pole on the ground was in 1948 by a 24-man Soviet party, part of Aleksandr Kuznetsov 's Sever-2 expedition to the Arctic, who flew part-way to the Pole first before making the final trek to the Pole on foot. The first complete land expedition to reach the North Pole was in 1968 by Ralph Plaisted , Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, using snowmobiles and with air support. The Earth's axis of rotation – and hence

3913-408: The North Pole on two custom-built 6 x 6 low-pressure-tire ATVs. The vehicles, Yemelya-1 and Yemelya-2, were designed by Vasily Elagin, a Russian mountain climber, explorer and engineer. They reached the North Pole on 26 April 2009, 17:30 (Moscow time). The expedition was partly supported by Russian State Aviation. The Russian Book of Records recognized it as the first successful vehicle trip from land to

4004-457: The North Pole over the ice surface by any means. In the 1980s Plaisted's pilots Weldy Phipps and Ken Lee signed affidavits asserting that no such airlift was provided. It is also said that Herbert was the first person to reach the pole of inaccessibility . On 17 August 1977 the Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika completed the first surface vessel journey to the North Pole. In 1982 Ranulph Fiennes and Charles R. Burton became

4095-494: The North Pole was accomplished by Ralph Plaisted , Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier, who traveled over the ice by snowmobile and arrived on 19 April 1968. The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position. On 6 April 1969 Wally Herbert and companions Allan Gill, Roy Koerner and Kenneth Hedges of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition became the first men to reach

4186-709: The North Pole, the first international surfacing at the North Pole. In 1988 a team of 13 (9 Soviets, 4 Canadians) skied across the arctic from Siberia to northern Canada. One of the Canadians, Richard Weber , became the first person to reach the Pole from both sides of the Arctic Ocean. On April 16, 1990, a German-Swiss expedition led by a team of the University of Giessen reached the Geographic North Pole for studies on pollution of pack ice , snow and air. Samples taken were analyzed in cooperation with

4277-404: The North Pole. The 1998 expedition was dropped by parachute and completed the track to the North Pole. The 2000 expedition departed from a Russian research base around 114 km from the Pole and claimed an average speed of 20–15 km/h in an average temperature of −30 °C. Commercial airliner flights on the polar routes may pass within viewing distance of the North Pole. For example,

4368-797: The North Pole." The first claimed flight over the Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by US naval officer Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft. Although verified at the time by a committee of the National Geographic Society , this claim has since been undermined by the 1996 revelation that Byrd's long-hidden diary's solar sextant data (which the NGS never checked) consistently contradict his June 1926 report's parallel data by over 100 mi (160 km). The secret report's alleged en-route solar sextant data were inadvertently so impossibly overprecise that he excised all these alleged raw solar observations out of

4459-662: The Pole at a depth of 17 m (56 ft) below the present surface. A flagpole erected at the South Geographical Pole in December 1965 by the First Argentine Overland Polar Expedition has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 1) following a proposal by Argentina to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting . In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted Antarctica, with

4550-403: The Pole on skis after leaving Nansen's icebound ship Fram . The pair reached latitude 86°14′ North before they abandoned the attempt and turned southwards, eventually reaching Franz Josef Land . In 1897, Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée and two companions tried to reach the North Pole in the hydrogen balloon Örnen ("Eagle"), but came down 300 km (190 mi) north of Kvitøya ,

4641-468: The Pole, so the land surface under the ice sheet is actually near sea level. The polar ice sheet is moving at a rate of roughly 10 m (33 ft) per year in a direction between 37° and 40° west of grid north, down towards the Weddell Sea . Therefore, the position of the station and other artificial features relative to the geographic pole gradually shift over time. The Geographic South Pole

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4732-471: The Pole, was stymied when his expedition found itself stuck in thick ice after only three days. The expedition was then abandoned. By September 2007 the North Pole had been visited 66 times by different surface ships: 54 times by Soviet and Russian icebreakers, 4 times by Swedish Oden , 3 times by German Polarstern , 3 times by USCGC Healy and USCGC Polar Sea , and once by CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and by Swedish Vidar Viking . On 2 August 2007

4823-468: The South Pole ). However, the Soviet Union , and later Russia, constructed a number of manned drifting stations on a generally annual basis since 1937, some of which have passed over or very close to the Pole. Since 2002, a group of Russians have also annually established a private base, Barneo , close to the Pole. This operates for a few weeks during early spring. Studies in the 2000s predicted that

4914-423: The South Pole became more accessible to non-government expeditions. On 30 December 1989, Arved Fuchs and Reinhold Messner were the first to traverse Antarctica via the South Pole without animal or motorized help, using only skis and the help of wind. Two women, Victoria E. Murden and Shirley Metz, reached the pole by land on 17 January 1989. The fastest unsupported journey to the Geographic South Pole from

5005-430: The South Pole by surface transportation, including those by Havola, Crary , and Fiennes . The first group of women to reach the pole were Pam Young, Jean Pearson, Lois Jones , Eileen McSaveney , Kay Lindsay, and Terry Tickhill in 1969. In 1978–79, Michele Eileen Raney became the first woman to winter at the South Pole. Subsequent to the establishment, in 1987, of the logistic support base at Patriot Hills Base Camp ,

5096-556: The South Pole ice. Scientists published in the journal Gondwana Research that evidence had been found of dinosaurs with feathers to protect the animals from the extreme cold. The fossils had been found over 100 years ago in Koonwarra , Australia, but in sediment which had accumulated under a lake which had been near to the South Pole millions of years ago. North Pole 90°N 0°E  /  90°N 0°E  / 90; 0 The North Pole , also known as

5187-476: The South Pole is –49.5 °C (–57.1 °F). The South Pole has an ice cap climate ( Köppen climate classification EF ). It resembles a desert, receiving very little precipitation. Air humidity is near zero. However, high winds can cause the blowing of snowfall, and the accumulation of snow amounts to about 7 cm (2.8 in) per year. The former dome seen in pictures of the Amundsen–Scott station

5278-508: The South Pole on 17 January 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. On the return trip, Scott and his four companions all died of starvation and extreme cold. In 1914 Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out with the goal of crossing Antarctica via the South Pole, but his ship, the Endurance , was frozen in pack ice and sank 11 months later. The overland journey was never made. US Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd , with

5369-443: The Sun is roughly perceived to be at its highest). This line of reasoning fails at the South Pole, where the Sun is seen to rise and set only once per year with solar elevation varying only with day of the year, not time of day. There is no a priori reason for placing the South Pole in any particular time zone, but as a matter of practical convenience the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station keeps New Zealand Time (UTC+12/UTC+13). This

5460-532: The UK in 2006. She made the journey in 39 days 9 hours 33 minutes. She started on 19 November 2006 and finished on 28 December 2006. In the 2011–12 summer, separate expeditions by Norwegian Aleksander Gamme and Australians James Castrission and Justin Jones jointly claimed the first unsupported trek without dogs or kites from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole and back. The two expeditions started from Hercules Inlet

5551-543: The aim of travelling as far south as possible, and on 31 December 1902, reached 82°16′ S. Shackleton later returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic Expedition ( Nimrod Expedition ) in a bid to reach the Pole. On 9 January 1909, with three companions, he reached 88°23' S – 112 miles (180 km) from the Pole ;– before being forced to turn back. The first men to reach

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5642-566: The approximately 23.5° tilt of the earth's axis. Much of the sunlight that does reach the surface is reflected by the white snow. This lack of warmth from the sun, combined with the high altitude (about 2,800 metres (9,200 ft)), means that the South Pole has one of the coldest climates on Earth (though it is not quite the coldest; that record goes to the region in the vicinity of the Vostok Station , also in Antarctica, which lies at

5733-416: The area in 1926 with 16 men on board, including expedition leader Roald Amundsen . Three prior expeditions – led by Frederick Cook (1908, land), Robert Peary (1909, land) and Richard E. Byrd (1926, aerial) – were once also accepted as having reached the Pole. However, in each case later analysis of expedition data has cast doubt upon the accuracy of their claims. The first verified individuals to reach

5824-472: The assistance of his first pilot Bernt Balchen , became the first person to fly over the South Pole on 29 November 1929. It was not until 31 October 1956 that humans once again set foot at the South Pole, when a party led by Admiral George J. Dufek of the US Navy landed there in an R4D-5L Skytrain ( C-47 Skytrain ) aircraft. The US Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was established by air over 1956–1957 for

5915-704: The continent of Antarctica , it is the site of the United States Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station , which was established in 1956 and has been permanently staffed since that year. The Geographic South Pole is distinct from the South Magnetic Pole , the position of which is defined based on Earth's magnetic field . The South Pole is the center of the Southern Hemisphere . 90°S 0°E  /  90°S 0°E  / -90; 0 For most purposes,

6006-401: The continent. Next year, on 9 May 1949 two other Soviet scientists (Vitali Volovich and Andrei Medvedev) became the first people to parachute onto the North Pole. They jumped from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain , registered CCCP H-369. On 3 May 1952, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict , along with scientist Albert P. Crary , landed

6097-565: The crew. Another transpolar flight  [ ru ] was accomplished in a Tupolev ANT-25 airplane with a crew of Valery Chkalov , Georgy Baydukov and Alexander Belyakov , who flew over the North Pole on 19 June 1937, during their direct flight from the Soviet Union to the USA without any stopover. In May 1937 the world's first North Pole ice station , North Pole-1 , was established by Soviet scientists 20 kilometres (13 mi) from

6188-489: The direction of true north . At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. No time zone has been assigned to the North Pole, so any time can be used as the local time. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest land

6279-667: The eastern coast of Greenland. In May 1945 an RAF Lancaster of the Aries expedition became the first Commonwealth aircraft to overfly the North Geographic and North Magnetic Poles. The plane was piloted by David Cecil McKinley of the Royal Air Force . It carried an 11-man crew, with Kenneth C. Maclure of the Royal Canadian Air Force in charge of all scientific observations. In 2006, Maclure

6370-422: The explorer's navigational records. He concluded that Peary had not reached the Pole. Support for Peary came again in 2005, however, when British explorer Tom Avery and four companions recreated the outward portion of Peary's journey with replica wooden sleds and Canadian Eskimo Dog teams, reaching the North Pole in 36 days, 22 hours – nearly five hours faster than Peary. However, Avery's fastest 5-day march

6461-426: The final stage of the journey were not trained in navigation, and thus could not independently confirm his navigational work, which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the Pole. The distances and speeds that Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back seem incredible to many people, almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point. Peary's account of

6552-480: The first being the Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev . The first landing was probably just over a year later when English-born American captain John Davis , a sealer, set foot on the ice. The basic geography of the Antarctic coastline was not understood until the mid-to-late 19th century. American naval officer Charles Wilkes claimed (correctly) that Antarctica

6643-608: The first people to cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season. They departed from Cape Crozier, Ellesmere Island , on 17 February 1982 and arrived at the geographic North Pole on 10 April 1982. They travelled on foot and snowmobile. From the Pole, they travelled towards Svalbard but, due to the unstable nature of the ice, ended their crossing at the ice edge after drifting south on an ice floe for 99 days. They were eventually able to walk to their expedition ship MV Benjamin Bowring and boarded it on 4 August 1982 at position 80:31N 00:59W. As

6734-616: The island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean and published by him in 1678. South Pole The South Pole , also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole , is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipodally on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole , at a distance of 20,004 km (12,430 miles) in all directions. It is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. Situated on

6825-554: The middle of an ocean. In midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, high temperatures at the South Pole in January average at −25.9 °C (−15 °F). As the six-month "day" wears on and the sun gets lower, temperatures drop as well: they reach −55 °C (−67 °F) around sunset (late March) and sunrise (late September). In midwinter, the average temperature remains steady at around −60 °C (−76 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded at

6916-788: The northeasternmost part of the Svalbard archipelago. They trekked to Kvitøya but died there three months after their crash. In 1930 the remains of this expedition were found by the Norwegian Bratvaag Expedition . The Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi and Captain Umberto Cagni of the Italian Royal Navy ( Regia Marina ) sailed the converted whaler Stella Polare ("Pole Star") from Norway in 1899. On 11 March 1900, Cagni led

7007-498: The observer. The brightest star in the night sky is located in the southern celestial hemisphere and is larger than the Sun . Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major has the brightest apparent magnitude of −1.46; it has a radius twice that of the Sun and is 8.6 light-years away. Canopus and the next fixed star α Centauri , 4.2 light-years away, are also located in the Southern Sky, having declinations around −60°; too close to

7098-414: The ocean is 24 days and one hour from Hercules Inlet and was set in 2011 by Norwegian adventurer Christian Eide, who beat the previous solo record set in 2009 by American Todd Carmichael of 39 days and seven hours, and the previous group record also set in 2009 of 33 days and 23 hours. The fastest solo, unsupported and unassisted trek to the south pole by a female was performed by Hannah McKeand from

7189-703: The pole, part of the British Arctic Expedition , by Commander Albert H. Markham reached a then-record 83°20'26" North in May 1876 before turning back. An 1879–1881 expedition commanded by US naval officer George W. De Long ended tragically when their ship, the USS ; Jeannette , was crushed by ice. Over half the crew, including De Long, were lost. In April 1895, the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen struck out for

7280-560: The position of the North Pole ;– was commonly believed to be fixed (relative to the surface of the Earth) until, in the 18th century, the mathematician Leonhard Euler predicted that the axis might "wobble" slightly. Around the beginning of the 20th century astronomers noticed a small apparent "variation of latitude", as determined for a fixed point on Earth from the observation of stars. Part of this variation could be attributed to

7371-488: The site. The Ceremonial South Pole is an area set aside for photo opportunities at the South Pole Station . It is located some meters from the Geographic South Pole, and consists of a metallic sphere on a short barber pole, surrounded by the flags of the original Antarctic Treaty signatory states . The tent was erected by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on its arrival on 14 December 1911. It

7462-505: The sky is considered by astronomers as the inside of a sphere divided in two halves by the celestial equator . The Southern Sky or Southern Hemisphere is, therefore, that half of the celestial sphere that is south of the celestial equator. Even if this one is the ideal projection of the terrestrial equatorial onto the imaginary celestial sphere, the Northern and Southern celestial hemispheres should not be confused with descriptions of

7553-408: The summit of Mount Everest) and Neil Armstrong (the first man to stand on the moon) landed at the North Pole in a small twin-engined ski plane. Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. In 1986 Will Steger , with seven teammates, became the first to be confirmed as reaching the Pole by dogsled and without resupply. USS Gurnard (SSN-662) operated in

7644-551: The support of the Diving Club of Moscow State University , but ended in fatality. The next attempted dive at the North Pole was organized the next year by the same diving club, and ended in success on 24 April 1999. The divers were Michael Wolff (Austria), Brett Cormick (UK), and Bob Wass (USA). In 2005 the United States Navy submarine USS Charlotte (SSN-766) surfaced through 155 cm (61 in) of ice at

7735-427: The version of the report finally sent to geographical societies five months later (while the original version was hidden for 70 years), a realization first published in 2000 by the University of Cambridge after scrupulous refereeing. The first consistent, verified, and scientifically convincing attainment of the Pole was on 12 May 1926, by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from

7826-551: The year. Several expeditions set out to find the way, generally with whaling ships, already commonly used in the cold northern latitudes. One of the earliest expeditions to set out with the explicit intention of reaching the North Pole was that of British naval officer William Edward Parry , who in 1827 reached latitude 82°45′ North. In 1871, the Polaris expedition , a US attempt on the Pole led by Charles Francis Hall , ended in disaster. Another British Royal Navy attempt to get to

7917-428: The youngest person to ski to the pole, aged 29. During winter (May through August), the South Pole receives no sunlight at all, and is completely dark apart from moonlight. In summer (November through February), the sun is continuously above the horizon and appears to move in a counter-clockwise circle. However, it is always low in the sky, reaching a maximum of approximately 23.5° around the December solstice because of

8008-459: Was 90 nautical miles (170 km), significantly short of the 135 nautical miles (250 km) claimed by Peary. Avery writes on his web site that "The admiration and respect which I hold for Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and the four Inuit men who ventured North in 1909, has grown enormously since we set out from Cape Columbia . Having now seen for myself how he travelled across the pack ice, I am more convinced than ever that Peary did indeed discover

8099-537: Was a new continent, basing the claim on his exploration in 1839–40, while James Clark Ross , in his expedition of 1839–1843, hoped that he might be able to sail all the way to the South Pole; He was unsuccessful. British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 was the first to attempt to find a route from the Antarctic coastline to the South Pole. Scott, accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson , set out with

8190-455: Was honoured with a spot in Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame . Discounting Peary's disputed claim, the first men to set foot at the North Pole were a Soviet party including geophysicists Mikhail Ostrekin and Pavel Senko, oceanographers Mikhail Somov and Pavel Gordienko, and other scientists and flight crew (24 people in total) of Aleksandr Kuznetsov 's Sever-2 expedition (March–May 1948). It

8281-547: Was organized by the Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route . The party flew on three planes (pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy, Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov) from Kotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there at 4:44pm ( Moscow Time , UTC+04:00 ) on 23 April 1948. They established a temporary camp and for the next two days conducted scientific observations. On 26 April the expedition flew back to

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