When to toast the new year? While this question can be answered by looking at the clock in almost all parts of the world, the crew of the research ship "Polarstern" slips into the New Year at a somewhat arbitrary time in the Arctic.
"The traditional concept of time loses its meaning somewhat in the polar night and close to the North Pole area. You can choose the time zone relatively freely there," expedition leader Markus Rex told Deutschlandfunk. The longitudes that normally define the time zones would be crossed within a short time.
"We currently live on board the" Polarstern "in Moscow time," said Rex. After this, the glass of sparkling wine was also topped on the bridge.
more on the subject
The "Polarstern" has been drifting through the North Pole region with the Arctic sea ice since October. Due to the polar night, it is currently surrounded by constant darkness. Around 300 scientists from 16 countries will be on board during the one-year expedition. The goal is to explore the climate in Central Arctic.
Rex himself, who works for the Alfred Wegener Institute, does not spend New Year's Eve on the "Polarstern", he is on the way back to Norway.
ISS: Crew can greet the New Year 15 times
The crew of the International Space Station also has many reasons to celebrate. It can slip into the New Year 15 times. The Russian space agency Roskosmos said the number of times the space station would exceed the date limit on January 1. The space station orbits the earth every hour and a half. Twelve months ago, the ISS even welcomed the New Year 16 times.
However, according to Roskosmos, the crew only wants to celebrate three times: each time according to local time over the control center Houston (US state of Texas), over Lake Baikal in Siberia and over the Pacific.
NASA
The International Space Station orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 400 kilometers (archive picture)
According to the agency, the astronauts can look forward to new years including olives, pistachios, dates, dried cranberries, pine nuts, hazelnuts and chocolate. You have to do without black caviar, which was otherwise consumed at New Year, this year.
There are currently six people orbiting around 400 kilometers around the world at the human outpost: the Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skworzow and Oleg Skripotschka, the Americans Christina Koch, Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan and the Italian Luca Parmitano.
The first: Samoa and Kiribati welcomed the new year
The Pacific island states of Samoa and Kiribati were the first in the world to greet the new year at eleven o'clock in German time. Samoa moved to New Year's Eve pole position in 2011 by moving its own time zone, which is one hour earlier in the new year than New Zealand. Two more hours later, the corks pop in Australia's east coast metropolis Sydney (2 p.m. CET).
Theoretically, those who are particularly fond of celebrations have the opportunity to slip into the New Year twice by traveling from Samoa to American Samoa east of the date line. There is only around 125 kilometers as the crow flies between the capitals, but there is a 25 hour time difference. The US outskirts marks the end of the New Year's Eve round the world.
