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  • Published
    13 Images

    IceCube: The Coldest Science on Earth

    After five cold years, researchers are set to finish a giant underground telescope buried beneath the South Pole. Accordingly called the IceCube Observatory, completion is expected late Friday, once the last of more than 5,000 optical sensors is buried as much as two miles below the permanent ice cap covering Antarctica. 

  • IceCube_Lab_at_Sunset
    A silhouette of the IceCube neutrino detector facility at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
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    NSF
  • Scott Smith at South Pole
    Scott Smith, a member of the IceCube research team at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, is covered with frost on a typical spring day at Pole.
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    Scott Smith / National Science Foundation
  • Jessica Hodges with IceCube
    Jessica Hodges, a physics graduate student with IceCube, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is pictured with a digital Optical Module (DOM) -- the sensors that make up the giant telescope.
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    Glenn Grant/National Science Foundation
  • The IceCube Concept
    Artist's rendering of a Cerenkov light cone passing through the IceCube telescope. The Cerenkov light is created when a neutrino collides with a water molecule deep in the ice of Antarctica, producing a type of particle called a muon, which radiates the blue light.
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    NSF
  • special drill for IceCube
    Burying the sensors in the ice is its own challenge; as you might expect, the team employs hot water drills shown here to penetrate the South Pole's ice. 
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    NSF
  • DOM going down hole
    A digital sensor, one of the thousands that make up the IceCube Neutrino Detector, is carefully lowered to its resting place beneath Antarctica's ice.
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    NSF
  • Results_of_a_Damaged_Hose
    A damaged hose spews during drilling for the IceCube project. 
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    NSF
  • DOM up close
    A close up view of one of the sensors that make up the IceCube Neutrino Detector.
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    Wikipedia
  • Ice_Cube_from_the_air
    A plane circles over the IceCube installation -- conveniently located at the bottom of the world. 
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    NSF
  • How_do_you_reach_remote_antarctica
    An Air Force Hercules sits on the "tarmac" outside the Amundsen base.
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    NSF
  • Digging_a_hole
    How do you manage snow in Antarctica? it's easy ... with construction equipment.
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    NSF
  • a_single_sensor
    An artist's illustration of a row of sensors. About eighty holes have been drilled in total, each one approximately 2.4 km deep. Neutrino detection instruments were lowered into each hole. 
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    NSF
  • The_road_to_Ice_Cube_Lab
    The cold and windy road on the way to the IceCube lab. 
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    NSF
  • Published
    13 Images

    IceCube: The Coldest Science on Earth

    After five cold years, researchers are set to finish a giant underground telescope buried beneath the South Pole. Accordingly called the IceCube Observatory, completion is expected late Friday, once the last of more than 5,000 optical sensors is buried as much as two miles below the permanent ice cap covering Antarctica. 

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  • IceCube: The Coldest Science on Earth
  • IceCube_Lab_at_Sunset
  • Scott Smith at South Pole
  • Jessica Hodges with IceCube
  • The IceCube Concept
  • special drill for IceCube
  • DOM going down hole
  • Results_of_a_Damaged_Hose
  • DOM up close
  • Ice_Cube_from_the_air
  • How_do_you_reach_remote_antarctica
  • Digging_a_hole
  • a_single_sensor
  • The_road_to_Ice_Cube_Lab