Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Robot Explores Glaciers in Antarctica - Great STEM Vido

From my In Box sent by NOVA PBS


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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020
Beneath Antarctica’s glaciers, a 12-foot-long robot named Icefin explores places neither boats nor divers can reach.
Icefin is testing technologies designed for exploring Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. But before its successors go into space, this robot has a serious job on Earth: taking measurements from under a glacier so researchers like Georgia Tech astrobiologist Britney Schmidt can better understand how climate change is affecting Antarctica’s vulnerable ice. NOVA’s Caitlin Saks and Arlo Perez meet with Schmidt and her team of young scientists and engineers on the 8-mile-long Erebus Ice Tongue to discover how this robot is gathering data before its “grandkids” leave our planet.

Then, Schmidt, her team, and Icefin head to the Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Thwaites is one of the most remote places on Earth, but this so-called “Doomsday Glacier” is on the front line of climate change. The thinning and melting of Thwaites already accounts for 4% of global sea level rise, and scientists fear the glacier may eventually collapse.

Now, with the help of Icefin, scientists hope to better understand why Thwaites is melting so quickly—and whether it’s at risk of accelerated melting in the near future.

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