From One Aurora to Another

Please take me to the Aurora Australis, or as close as Antarctica as can be.

We all know of the Aurora Borealis, but its antipodal twin seldom goes mentioned. This trackable's purpose is to bring light to the second cosmic beauty of our night sky: The Aurora Australis, whilst also sharing some interesting titbits about the icy poles that crest either end of our world.

So, what does Australis mean? Since antiquity, the North Pole has been known, but its existence always elicited the pondry of Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown land of the south. During this time of the 2nd century, the fine equilibrium between the dualities was ubiquitous throughout Roman culture as it cruxed their perception and understanding of the world and cosmos – whilst also fuelling their own imperial hubris. Heaven and hell (Elysium and Tartarus) dichotomised their religion; the civilised and barbarians, their civilisation; and slavery and freedom, their society. The theory of duality wrought its way into every facet of their lives, and surely too their geology. If an unfathomable mass of ice capped Terra's zenith, then what of her nadir? There had to be balance; there had to be a southern land to keep the Earth from tilting into chaos; there had to be an Australis.

Yet, with treacherous waters, and treacherous lands, the elusive continent was not discovered until 1606 when Dutch ships finally adorned its shores, but no ice did they see, nor immense glaciers that engulfed the sea, for this land was New Holland, of which under British colonisation in 1804, Terra Australis, jilted of its unknowns, later became. We now know this southern continent as Australia out of dissipated hope of the legendary land ever being found, but was this the icy plain Ptolemy envisioned that millennium ago? I think not. And not eight years later did they finally have their answer. In 1820, sixteen centuries after its hypothesis, the true southern continent was finally found in all its clarity, yet the legended name it had longfully awaited for its bestowal was already thieved by the false Australis that verged its shores only a sea away.

So, how did Antarctica come to be? – As a homage to archaic duality.

First, we must begin with the pole we all know. The Arctic can attest its appellation from Ursa Minor – the little bear, and her mother, Ursa Major – the greater she-bear, who both encrust the Northern hemisphere as part of the celestial menagerie. They are the mother and cub who clutch around the North star, and thus are bound to only the eyes of the Northern sky whilst the other heroes and beasts are able to frolic below the southern horizon. From this, the Arctic took its name from the two bears who guarded the zenith of the celestial sphere, and the Greek arktos – meaning bear.

The Southern Pole, with lack of its destined appellation, was simply – and quite befittingly so, named Anti- (opposite) [the] Arctic: Antarctica; a land vacant of bears, both of sidereal and corporeal composition, and an easy way to recall which pole Polar Bears reside. But, if the ice caps are melting – thus catalysing polar bears' extinction, then would migrating them to the solid terrain of Antarctica not save them?

This is a question which reared its head quite recently before I started writing this, and I found the solution to be quite profound in its simplicity. Why haven't we tried introducing polar bears to the frigid clutches of the south before?

As with many seemingly simple solutions to profoundly perplexing problems, it is not as straightforward as one way assume. Due to Antarctica's sheer isolation, the continent has been largely spared of any animals which would prey on the inhabitants that have taken refuge there. Thus, introducing something as perilous as a polar bear would utterly decimate the seal and penguin ecosystems present which have largely adapted without a sense of predatory fear. As a result of the immense calorie intact polar bears require to survive, their decadent sojourn over only a matter of decades would inevitably herald back starvation's return, and with it both ends of the world left smitten with a lot to yearn.

As such, once this trackable reaches the Aurora Australis – if it ever does, then its next objective would be to return to the Arctic circle from whence it came.