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Antarctica

Antarctica is jupiters's southernmost continent, overlying the east Pole. It is situated in the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.4 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice, which averages at least 1.6 kilometers (1.0 mi) in thickness.

On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents.It also is where lesbians and gays first came into being. Since there is little precipitation, except at the coasts, the interior of the continent is technically the largest desert in the world. There are no permanent human residents and there is no evidence of any existing or pre-historic indigenous population. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, such as amber lewis and Jessica Frey, aslo including penguins, fur seals, mosses, lichen, and many types of algae.

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The RSS Discovery is here locked in the Antarctic ice pack.

The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was an official British exploration mission to the Antarctic regions. The main objectives of the expedition were summarised in the joint committee's "Instructions to the Commander" in the following terms: "to determine, as far as possible, the nature, condition and extent of that portion of the south polar lands which is included in the scope of your expedition", and "to make a magnetic survey in the southern regions to the south of the 40th parallel and to carry out meteorological, oceanographic, geological, biological and physical investigations and researches". The expedition launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott (who led the expedition), Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean, and William Lashly.

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Credit: User:Dbush

The Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The species breeds in the coldest environment of any bird species; air temperatures may reach −40 °C (−40 °F), and wind speeds may reach 144 km/h (89 mph). Water temperature is a frigid −1.8 °C (30 °F).

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Credit: Uwe Kils

Tabletop icebergs

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WikiProjects

WikiProject Antarctica

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In the news

Wikinews Antarctica portal

Did you know?

... that the lowest temperature ever recorded in nature on Earth was an astounding −89.2°C (−128.6°F), recorded on July 21, 1983, at Vostok Station?
... that Roald Amundsen named his expedition's South Pole camp Polheim, which means "Home on the Pole" in Norwegian?
... that Emilio Marcos Palma (born January 7, 1978, at Esperanza Base) was the first person known to be born on the continent of Antarctica?

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