Why does the Sun never set during December in Antarctica?
Night or day, who can say? Imagine a day when the Sun never sets. Now imagine a day without it rising. Sound pretty extreme? Well that’s exactly what happens a couple of days each year in Antarctica. The amount of daylight or night-time in Antarctica depends on where you are – the closer you are to the South Pole, the more powerful the effect. By December, the sky in Antarctica is filled with daylight 24 hours a day because the Sun moves across the sky, low above the horizon, but never sets. With each passing day, the Sun’s path gets closer to the horizon, until March, when it spends the day skimming the horizon. This is followed by a month of eerie twilight, marking the beginning of the almost 24-hour darkness of winter.
