'Long night ahead': Antarctica goes dark for four months as Sun sets

Imagine four months without sunshine — that is the reality for Antarctica, which started the 'long night' season on May 13 with the final sunset. Most people are intimidated by the region's solitude and brutal temperatures, but it also provides a unique chance for astronauts to train for space missions and learn living in some of the harshest circumstances on the planet. These four months, with no sunlight and severe temperatures, are ideal for their arduous training.

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Although most areas in the world have four seasons, Antarctica only has two - summer and winter. The sun shines on the world's coldest continent for six months of the year, while the rest of the year is spent in full darkness.

Concordia, Antarctica's most remote facility, will once again serve as the home base for a 12-member European Space Agency (ESA) crew who will live and operate in isolation. The crew's aim will be to undertake numerous studies to learn how the extreme environment effect humans.

"From sleep studies to gut health assessments to thoughtful practises, the crew is being probed and prodded to help researchers understand and overcome the obstacles that extreme settings, like as space, bring to present and future explorers," the ESA wrote on its official website.

The Concordia station will also no longer receive supplies from outside sources, since the last supply aircraft reached Antarctica in February. The base is now provisioned for at least nine months, and temperatures are projected to fall to roughly -80 degrees Celsius.

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