Antarctica is the only continent that has never had an indigenous population of humans because it has always been such an extreme environment. The inaccessibility of the place and the lack of reliable food and means for constructing shelter has kept humans away for thousands of years. But the new technologies developed over the last 200 years made it possible for people to reach these icy shores to explore and study the Antarctic for the first time in human history. Since there are no people who claim Antarctica as their homeland, exploration of the continent has been shared by all nations of the world. Many scientific stations have been constructed on Antarctica to provide shelter and supplies for scientists doing field work there.
Some scientists actually live on Antarctica for part of the year to conduct their research.
Almost no one stays there more than six months. The sun rises and sets only ONCE A YEAR in the Antarctic, which means there are six months of daylight, followed by six months of darkness. Recently, scientists have theorized that the conditions in the Antarctic are similar to those on Mars. Because of the similarities exploration of the Antarctic has taken on a new meaning for the search for signs of life in the most extreme environments. Many, many fascinating things have been discovered in the Antarctic that have challenged some of our most basic ideas about what life on earth means.