“Messengers,” an immersive documentary featuring IceCube, is now playing internationally across a series of film festivals this fall. The new film by Canadian director Jeffrey Zablotny features the South Pole neutrino experiment as part of a surreal, poetic exploration of three groundbreaking particle physics experiments across the world. From a sealed laboratory carved into a […]
In 2022, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole announced evidence for high-energy neutrinos spewing from the “nearby” active galaxy NGC 1068. One of the brightest X-ray sources in the universe, NGC 1068 is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a central, supermassive black hole that actively gobbles up surrounding matter. X-rays shine brightly […]
“Project Hercules” is the latest educational video game from Field Day, an award-winning game design studio based at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research within the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Developed in collaboration with the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC), the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and a network of […]
The sun is up, but it’s still quite low on the horizon. When you face the sun, as in the image above looking at the South Pole Telescope, all of the surroundings are still dark and in shadow. Face away, as in the image below of the IceCube Upgrade drill camp, and all is clear […]
Antarctica has sometimes been referred to as the end of the world. But for those who live at the South Pole, there’s a specific place known as the “End of the World.” It’s what they call the area past the storage berms out on the ice. Snow removed from around buildings is often dumped there […]
Yes, the sun has officically risen at the Pole. But it happened at the very end of the week, so we may have to wait a bit for an actual sunrise photo (or go back one or two weeks for something close). Last week was busy with several sunrise-related activities. IceCube’s winterovers were out cleaning […]
A total lunar eclipse started off last week at the Pole. IceCube winterover Ilya had set up a camera box in advance to capture photos during the event. Unfortunately, the weather was poor and the blood moon was not very visible, plus the outdoor camera setup wasn’t a match for the weather conditions. Still, Ilya […]
As cosmic rays collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere, air showers containing atmospheric muons and neutrinos are produced. The atmospheric neutrinos are then detected by DeepCore, a denser and smaller array of sensors in the center of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. Compared to the main IceCube detector, DeepCore is sensitive […]
As the sky at the South Pole gets brighter, we can definitely see the difference from just two weeks ago in this view of the IceCube Lab. The snow drift is still there, though, and that will stay there until it is intentionally moved—the sun won’t be able to make a dent in it, even […]
The sky at the South Pole continues to brighten up before official sunrise—lately to the point where headlamps are no longer needed to see while walking outside. The moon can help brighten things up even more on some days. IceCube winterover Ilya was out with his camera last week, taking some nice photos of the […]