Australians are excited as their newest icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, arrives home in Hobart.
Download the accompanying fun student activities to explore Nuyina.
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After a four year build and 24,000 km, 47 day maiden ‘delivery voyage’, Australia’s new Antarctic icebreaker RSV Nuyina arrived in its new home port of Hobart, Tasmania, on Saturday, 16 October 2021.
The ship will support the cutting-edge science of the Australian Antarctic Program and resupply our stations for the next 30 years.
Nuyina will replace the Aurora Australis which hosted researchers and took supplies between stations across Antarctica for the past three decades.
It stands tall at 50 meters and a whopping 160 meters in length and will be home to many scientists as they study the Antarctic environment in brand new ways.
Nuyina will collect samples and data from the bottom of the deepest sea canyons, through the depths of the oceans and ice, to the atmosphere and into space! Scientists will study the Antarctic ecosystem from the tiniest plankton to the largest mammals on earth.
The ship can deploy, operate and recover a range of equipment and instruments in all kinds of weather and ice conditions, and with impressive precision.
It has a range of work spaces and facilities that can be tailored to the needs of a particular science purpose. A specialised science tender, or small boat, can be launched from Nuyina to get a closer look at some aspects of the environment. The ship can operate as a floating station, supporting teams of scientists studying the Southern Ocean marine environment, sea ice and atmosphere, or even working on the Antarctic continent.
You can find out more about Nuyina to help students with their activities here.
This resource is supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.
The Royal Institution of Australia is the official education partner of the Australian Antarctic Division.
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