Neutrino observatory under Antarctic ice nearing completion

[Fumesucker]

http://www.gizmag.com/icecube-antarctic-ice-neutrino-observatory/16216/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=96f04a5cfd-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

After two decades of planning, the world’s first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory should finally be completed by this December. Named IceCube, it will consist of an array of 5,160 optical sensors embedded within one cubic kilometer of the Antarctic ice shelf – to put the accomplishment in perspective, one of the next-largest such observatories is just 40 cubic meters in size. Its main purpose will be to try to establish, once and for all, the source of cosmic rays.

Neutrinos are the second-most abundant particles in the universe, after photons, and are created when radioactive particles decay. In violent events like super novae and gamma ray bursts, high-energy neutrinos are the result. Neutrinos have no electrical charge, and have such a low mass that they typically pass unimpeded through matter, so they don’t often make their presence known. Occasionally, however, a neutrino can strike the nucleus of an atom, creating a particle called a muon. When this happens, the muon radiates blue light.

At IceCube, the optical sensors will be monitoring the cubic kilometer of ice, and will detect the blue flares that occur when a neutrino collides with an ice atom. By observing the resulting muon, scientists can determine the direction from which the neutrino arrived, along with the cosmic ray that it was a part of.

(...)

Here’s the thing, though... most of the muons detected will be from neutrinos that originated not in deep space, but merely in the atmosphere above the observatory. To filter for truly cosmic high-energy neutrinos, the observatory will be looking specifically for muons that indicate their neutrino came from the north, passed through the earth, and impacted the ice atom from below.

More at the link..

Here also is the official website for the IceCube Neutrino observatory.

http://icecube.wisc.edu/

[MineralMan]

1. It'll be interesting to see what results they obtain.

[Fumesucker]

2. If you go to the website you'll see that they are already obtaining results..

There's an article about anisotropy in cosmic ray observations.. The observatory was not designed for detecting cosmic rays but it does indeed have to filter out cosmic ray events since it is quite sensitive to those things, this "noise" data is useful for other scientists studying particles that are not neutrinos.

[MineralMan]

3. Thanks. I did go to the link and read a number of articles there.

It's an area of physics research that I've found interesting for a long time. Thanks for posting this.

[Fumesucker]

4. Every time we have found a way to look at the universe in a new manner..

We have found something unexpected, I doubt this time will be any different.

This neutrino observatory is far more powerful than what has existed hitherto, sort of like the Hubble Space Telescope compared to Newton's original reflector, a difference of degree so profound as to approach a difference of kind.

[MineralMan]

5. Very true. I'm glad that projects like this can still find funding

somehow. I'm sure the religious fundamentalists would enjoy having the opportunity to shut all such projects down if they were in power. We could be working on the Higgs boson here...but we're not. It's a shame. One more reason to keep the Republicans from regaining control.

[Nihil]

6. That is just so true.

> Every time we have found a way to look at the universe in a new manner
> we have found something unexpected ...

I love the sights that our unaided eyes cannot perceive: different spectra
(infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, X-ray), different speeds (incredibly fast,
unbelievably slow), different scales (amazingly small, mind-numbingly big).

All of them show wondrous beauty all around us.