Image of the Northern Lights

Stuart Holroyd/Alamy Stock Photo; Jim McMahon/Mapman® (map); shutterstock.com (all other images)

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Take the Antarctica Challenge!

Ernest Shackleton faced the challenges of the coldest, driest, windiest place in the world—Antarctica. Now it’s your turn. Explore the icy land around the South Pole with these fun facts. Then answer the questions.

6 Months

Antarctica has nonstop daylight for half of the year. The sun rises there in September and finally sets in March.

Night-Light

This colorful light show is called an aurora [uh-ROR-uh]. Auroras swirl over Earth’s North and South poles. The aurora pictured here was spotted over a research station in Antarctica. 

Did You Know?

Most of Earth’s ice is in Antarctica. The ice there can be around 3 miles thick.

-128 Degrees

That’s the coldest temperature in Fahrenheit ever recorded on Earth. And it was in Antarctica. 

Zero

The number of people who call Antarctica home year-round is zero. But plenty of penguins, seals, and whales live there!

Questions

1. What is Earth’s coldest recorded temperature?

2. How many people live in Antarctica year-round? 

3. True or false? The sun rises and sets every 24 hours in Antarctica.

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