If you are looking for the calmest, driest and coldest place on Earth your search could be over. Astronomers seeking the best site in the world for an observatory discovered a place known simply as Ridge A, 4,052m (13,297ft) high up on the Antarctic Plateau. Not only is the weather serene, but the place is so pristine no human is thought to have ever set foot there.

It might seem bizarre to find such peace and calm on Antarctica, famous for spectacular blizzards and vast piles of snow and ice. But the Antarctic Plateau, deep in the continent's interior, is far removed from the howling winds and big snowfalls that afflict much of the lowlands below.

The big disadvantage for anyone tempted to look for a peaceful retreat there is the intense cold; the average winter temperature is -70C (-94F). That intense cold also makes it incredibly dry, and with very little wind and atmospheric turbulence, the stars don't twinkle in the night sky, a huge bonus for an astronomical observatory.

"It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all," said the science team leader Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Australia. "The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers. Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth."