About one hundred years ago, Robert Falcon Scott sat at a table in his hut on Ross Island off the coast of Antarctica and, as it appears in the above photograph, wrote in his journal. Thousands of miles away from home, he was making the final preparations for his race to the South Pole that he would lose to the Norwegians -- and from which none of Scott's team would make it back alive.
What has become of the hut since? What remains of Scott's polar base?
Now with Google, you can see for yourself the hut as it stands today. Explore its rooms and the surrounding ice, and in that warped perspective of Google's Street View, that very table where Scott sat -- the bed and shelves still lining the background (and, for some reason, a dead penguin on the table's surface).
The hut is part of a suite of Antarctica sites Google released in 360-degree panoramics on Street View today. The release also includes:
Shackleton's hut (from another polar expedition):
The ceremonial South Pole:
And, maybe best of all, the penguin rookery!
According to Google's Alex Starns, who works on the Maps and Street View projects, Google brought these Antartica sites online as part of its bigger desire to make remote and inaccessible regions of the world more familiar for research, education or just plain enjoyment.