The Geographic pole is the top of the axis on which the earth spins, the Magnetic pole is where the compass points to, and the Arctic pole is the point on the Arctic Ocean furthest from any land.

BBC: NEWS | UK | British man scores polar success

An Egyptian astronomer would have held up a plumb line and waited for the night sky to slowly pivot around the unmarked pole as the Earth rotated.

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With all three vehicles, Arianespace, the company that runs Kourou, will now be able to offer satellite operators a ride for any type of spacecraft to all kinds of orbit - from the low, pole-crossing orbits used by Earth observation missions, to the high, geostationary locations favoured by big telecommunications platforms.

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And, the panel said, there's another reason America needs this center: The South Pole is one of the best places on Earth to do scientific studies.

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The Geomagnetic pole is the north end of the axis of the geomagnetic field which surrounds the Earth and extends into space as the magnetosphere.

BBC: NEWS | UK | British man scores polar success