Week 11 at the Pole

sunset cerem pole
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

Pull up a chair—sunset at the South Pole takes weeks, not hours. And why is that? Because the Earth’s rotational axis is tilted, the poles gradually proceed from full exposure to full shadow (and back again) as the Earth travels around the sun. The Earth’s tilt also gives us our seasons, and something less obvious—and maybe our new word of the day—the

  • Week 11 at the Pole