Imagine standing at the bottom of the world where everything is ice as far as your eyes can see.

The wind howls around you, penguins waddle past in groups.

The sun shines all day long without ever setting.

This is Antarctica, the coldest place on our planet.

It's a land so amazing that it seems like it belongs on another planet. But it's right

here on Earth waiting for you to learn about it.

Antarctica is the fifth largest continent on Earth. It sits at the very bottom of the

world around the South Pole. The continent is about the size of the United States and Mexico

put together. That makes it bigger than Europe. But here is

the really amazing part. Almost all of Antarctica is covered in ice. In fact, the ice is so thick

that if it all melted, the ocean would rise enough to flood many cities around the world.

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth.

Scientists once recorded a temperature there that was minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit.

That is so cold that your breath would freeze instantly.

It's so cold that if you threw a cup of hot water into the air, it would turn into snow before it hit the ground.

Antarctica is also the windiest continent. The winds there can blow faster than a car driving on the highway.

And believe it or not, Antarctica is also the driest continent. Parts of Antarctica get less rain and snow than the Sahara Desert. The air is so dry and cold that it's hard for moisture to exist.

The ice in Antarctica tells an amazing story. Scientists say that Antarctica has been covered by ice for 40 million years.

That means the ice was there long before any humans walked the earth. The ice

formed over millions of years as snow fell and did not melt. Each year new snow fell on top of old snow.

The weight of all that snow pushed down on the layers below it. The air got squeezed out of the

bottom layers and they turned into solid ice.

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