Education » Mystery Photo
Today's Mystery Photo
Can you guess what this is?
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 | This is a picture of the small boat kept on the deack of the Aurora Australis which has been splashed with sea water which has frozen before being able to run off - looks pretty cool don't you think? |
 | This is the Inmarsat-B Dome on the Aurora Australis. The Inmarsat-B is the high-speed data link we use to send/receive email over. |
 | This is the ship's crew testing whether the crane and cables will hold the weight of 3 scientists and their equipment before lowering them out onto the ice. They used metal weights to check that nothing would break when people were put into the basket. |
 | This is a MORSE CODE key in the radio room on the ship. Believe it or not many ships still have the ability to communicate using morse code in case of an emergency where computers and other, more modern, electrical equipment aren't functioning. |
 | This is the top of a "sack hole". Sack holes are the holes left in the ice when an ice core is removed. Scientists use them to collect the brine that drains out of the surrounding ice. They measure the salinity and temperature of the brine which can be up to 4 times as salty as normal sea water. The top is covered with a plug to stop snow falling in. If snow falls in and melts, it will decrease the salinity and therefore ruin the results of the experiment. |
 | This is the gadget Dr Rob Massom uses to measure snow density with. Dr Rob collects the snow in the chamber which has a known volume. He weighs the sample of snow and then divides the weight by the volume to calculate the density. |
 | This is our very own polar bear in a snow storm. |
 | This is a close up photo of patterns on the surface of the snow at our last ice station. If you look closely, it almost looks furry - but it is just ice crystals sticking up. |
 | This is our Field Training Officer Andy Cianchi's beard after it has been out on the ice for a few hours! |
  | This is the best seat in the house on board the Aurora Australis! It is a viewing chair up on the bridge and is a favourite spot of many expeditioners who are looking out for wildlife or icebergs. It is comfortable, warm and the view is always SPECTACULAR! |
 | This a picture of the Aurora Australis' propeller under the ice. It has been taken from underwater by the ROV. |
 | This is a photo of a large crack in sea ice taken from a helicopter. The lines on the surface look like oil but it is actually "grease ice" forming in the crack. |
 | This is a photo of ice crystals in an ice core. The photo has been taken through a microscope using a polarizing lens.The size of individual ice crystals can range from microscopic up to 10cm long! The size depends on the conditions that the crystal forms in. Very cold, still sea water creates the ice biggest crystals. |
 | Believe it or not, this is what steers the Aurora Australis - it looks more like a joy stick than the steering control for a ship as big and powerful as the Aurora Australis! You push it to the "port" side and the ship turns left, push it to the "starboard" side and the ship turns right. Simple, isn't it? |
 | This is a photograph of "marine snow" as viewed through a microscope. Marine snow is formed when plankton dies and sticks together in lumps. Once it forms a big enough lump, it begins to slowly float to the bottom of the sea like gently falling snow. Scientists are very interested in studying marine snow because it is an important part of the carbon cycle and a food source for a number of marine organisms. |
 | This is a two-stage regulator used for filling up the weather balloons on board the ship with hellium. The regulator attaches the bottle of hellium to the balloon and the stages help release the gas slowly, making it easy to fill it up! |
 | This is a steam exhaust pipe off the top of the Aurora Australis. This was a paticularly cold morning and you can see where the steam has turned into ice as the condensation has dripped down the side of the pipe. You may also recognise the ice formation from Antarctic Ice Art - where we used as "Icy Flames". |
 | This is penguin tracks in the snow. The dotted tracks are where the penguins have been walking and the continuous tracks are where they have been sliding on their tummies! |
 | This is a Siphonophore and it is a relative of jellyfish. It was caught in one of the ship's plankton tows the other night. It is about 3cm long and has the consistency of a jelly baby! |
 | This is Pueblo Bezoar! He lives in the engine room of the Aurora Australis. Pueblo is the result of the 13 years of accumulated human hair in the plumbing of the Aurora Australis. His first job was starring in an art exhibition in 2005. Now he just keeps the crew company on night shift. |
 | This is a birds eye view of the bow of the Aurora Australis breaking through the ice! |
 | This is a HYDRAULIC NUT from the ships engine! |
| This is a wrist warmer used by people who work out in the cold! It keeps their wrists really warm but leaves their fingers free to do work. The best thing about them is that they can be worn over other gloves! |
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| Underneath this big blue cover is the ship's CTD sensor (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth). It is deployed out the side of the boat, often into very deep water. It collects useful information about the sea water that can be used by many different people to understand how our oceans work.
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| This is used by the ship's Doctor if he needs to resuscitate somebody. The pink cup sits on the larynx and the tube attached to it comes out of the mouth so air can be pumped into it. The tube inside the bag gets pushed inside the lungs to get even more air down - they only use this in a real emergency! |
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| This is a COMPASS REPEATER, also known as a GYRO-COMPASS. The whole unit can be called a COMPASS BINNACLE but in simple terms it's one of the ship's compasses! |
 | These are CHOPPING BOARDS in the galley! |
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| This is an ICE CORER! |
