RV Polarstern (meaning pole star

Pole star

The term "Pole Star" usually refers to Polaris, which is the current northern pole star, also known as the North Star.In general, however, a pole star is a visible star, especially a prominent one, that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star whose apparent...

) is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 research icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...

 of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

The Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research is a scientific organization located in Bremerhaven, Germany. The institute was founded in 1980 and is named after revolutionary meteorologist climatologist, and geologist Alfred Wegener...

 in Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...

. The Polarstern was commissioned in 1982 and is mainly used for research in the Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 and Antarctica.

Polarstern was built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft at Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 and the Nobiskrug

Nobiskrug

Nobiskrug Ltd. is a shipbuilding company located on the Eider River in Rendsburg, Germany, specializing in building luxury yachts. It is now a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi MAR. The shipyard currently employs some 400 people....

 at Rendsburg

Rendsburg

Rendsburg is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the northeastern part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the Kreis of Rendsburg-Eckernförde. As of 2006, it had a population of 28,476.-History:...

. The ship has a length of 118 metres (387 feet).

Polarstern is a double-hulled

Double hull

A double hull is a ship hull design and construction method invented by Leonardo da Vinci where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is some distance inboard,...

 icebreaker. It is operational at temperatures as low as -50°C. (-58°F) Polarstern can break through ice 1.5 m (4.9 ft) thick at a speed of 5 knots. Thicker ice must be broken by ramming.

On September 7, 1991, Polarstern, assisted by the Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 arctic ice breaker Oden

Oden (icebreaker)

The Oden is a large Swedish icebreaker, built in 1988 for the Swedish Maritime Administration. It is named after the asa god Odin. First built to clear a passage through the ice of the Baltic sea for cargo ships, it was later modified to serve as a research vessel...

 reached the North Pole

North Pole

The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...

 as the first conventional powered vessels. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war

Tug of war

Tug of war, also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war or rope pulling, is a sport that directly pits two teams against each other in a test of strength. The term may also be used as a metaphor to describe a demonstration of brute strength by two opposing groups, such as a rivalry between two...

 and a football game on an ice floe. Polarstern again reached the pole exactly 10 years later together with the USCGC Healy. It returned for a third time on August 22, 2011 at exactly 9.42 a.m. This time it reported the most frequently recurring ice thickness at 0.9m compared with 2m in 2001, which corresponds to the long-term average.

On March 2, 2008, one of the vessel's helicopters crashed on a routine flight to the Antarctic Neumayer II

Neumayer Station

Neumayer-Station was a permanent German Antarctic research base located on Atka Bay. It opened in 1992 replacing the old Georg-von-Neumayer-Station....

 base. The German pilot and a Dutch researcher were killed, three other passengers injured.

On October 17, 2008, Polarstern, as the first research ship ever traveled through both the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...

 in one cruise and thus circumnavigated the North Pole.

In popular culture, Polarstern is also the name of the first track of Eisbrecher's

Eisbrecher

Eisbrecher is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band that consists primarily of Alexander Wesselsky and Noel Pix , with live support from Jürgen Plangger , Domonik Palmer , Achim Färber . In the United States and Canada, their record label is currently Metropolis Records...

 (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 for Icebreaker) first album, Eisbrecher. Throughout the track, narrations are given specifying the dimensions and specifications of an enormous ship, blowing the measurements of the real icebreaker out of proportion (e.g.: length of 236 metres).
The ship holds the central part in German musician Schiller's

Schiller (band)

Schiller is the main project of Christopher von Deylen , a German musician, composer and producer. He won the ECHO award in 2002 for the Best Dance Single of the Year.. Schiller has sold over 7 million albums worldwide.Christopher Von Deylen does not provide vocals for any of his compositions...

 2010 album Atemlos

Atemlos

Atemlos is the sixth studio album of German Electronica and Global Pop artist Christopher Von Deylen under his principle project "Schiller". The album was released on March 12, 2010...

. A track is titled after the ship. It is also featured in the DVD of the same title, showing the musician's expedition on the vessel.

External links

• Official site
• Current position of the Polarstern
• Secrets of the seas: Jurassic shrimp, hairy crabs and giant microbes, news article featuring The Polarstern