In June, the Aces spoke with Celas, a French scientist who had incredible adventures at the South Pole and who organized the very first LGBTQ+ Pride march there! We chatted about his fascinating job, space and love.
At 34 years old, Celas has already participated in three one-year missions in Antarctica! His job: research assistant in astrophysics. He studies the Universe through physics and mathematics… while sharing his daily life with millions of people on TikTok!
Antarctica is a huge ice desert that belongs to no one! Several countries have installed stations there where some scientists live, who study, among other things, global warming, marine animals… and even the Universe!
In the center of Antarctica is the geographic South Pole. This is where Celas worked.
Hi Celas! Your job looks fascinating! You have worked in Antarctica for various scientific stations. What is your job ?
Good morning ! My field is geophysics, or Earth sciences, and astrophysics, space sciences. I deal with different research instruments.
What was your role during the missions?
For the first, I was dealing with sensors that detect ground movements. I also followed a population of 200,000 penguins to better understand the impacts of global warming.
The second year, I worked on systems used to detect planets located very, very far away.
For the third, we tried to detect a very small particle which comes from space and which tells us about the composition of the Universe. We use an ice cube 1 km long, wide and deep, where 5200 sensors are located.
In 2022, you organized the first LGBTQ+ Pride march at the South Pole! How did you go about it?
We walked to the geographic South Pole in the middle of the night, at -50°C, bundled up, with our flags. In all, 17 people came, out of the 44 who live at the station. We also created a monument where we left the Pride flag.
Why was it important for you to organize all of this, but also to broadcast it on TikTok?
I think it’s good to show young people that there is nothing dirty about love. I have learned over time that my differences are not bad things. If at the end of the world we can love each other, then we can also love each other everywhere else.
By Camille Lopez
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