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Beneath Antarctica’s glaciers, a 12-foot-long robot named Icefin explores places neither boats nor divers can reach.
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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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