At the South Pole, the cubic-kilometer-sized IceCube Neutrino Observatory searches for high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. When a neutrino crashes into the ice, blue light is emitted and detected by some of IceCube’s 5,160 digital optical modules (DOMs) across 86 vertical cables (strings) embedded deep within the Antarctic ice. The IceCube Upgrade, an enhancement to […]
Over the past two months, a team of IceCube drill engineers have completed an impressive amount of work during the first of three consecutive field seasons for the IceCube Upgrade. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and international collaborators. The goal of the project is to drill seven holes in 2025/2026 and […]
Thai engineer Chana Sinsabvarodom was recently selected to work on the IceCube Upgrade project, which will install seven more densely instrumented strings of light sensors near the center of the IceCube array at the South Pole. The IceCube Upgrade will significantly enhance IceCube’s sensitivity to lower-energy neutrinos, improve the fidelity of all past and future […]
A group of scientists tasked with advising the federal government’s investments in particle physics research is recommending that the United States fund a planned expansion (dubbed IceCube-Gen2) of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, an international scientific collaboration operated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison at the South Pole. […]
Last week marked the end of the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC), the largest conference in the world for cosmic ray physics. The weeklong conference was held July 26-August 3 at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. ICRC 2023 was the largest ICRC in history, with a record number of 1,406 participants (1,102 onsite and […]
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometer-sized neutrino telescope, searches for high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. Located at the geographic South Pole, IceCube consists of 5,160 digital optical modules (DOMs) across 86 vertical cables (strings) embedded deep within the Antarctic ice, as well as a surface array, IceTop, and a denser inner subdetector, DeepCore. When neutrinos […]
For the first time, an international team of scientists have found evidence of high-energy neutrino emission from NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77, an active galaxy in the constellation Cetus and one of the most familiar and well-studied galaxies to date. First spotted in 1780, this galaxy, located 47 million light-years away from us, […]
A month ago, the Seattle Community Summer Study Workshop—July 17-26, 2022, at the University of Washington—brought together over a thousand scientists in one of the final steps of the Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise. The meetings and accompanying white papers put the cherry on top of a period of collaborative work setting a vision for […]
The search for the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is not a simple one. UHECRs, which are a mixture of protons and heavy nuclei, are the highest energy particles ever measured. They should produce “hotspots” of high-energy neutrinos if they interact with other particles near their point of origin. Six years ago, a first […]
X-ray binaries (XRB) consist of a compact object, such as a neutron star or a black hole, and a noncompact, companion star. When they are close enough, material is pulled off the star and drawn onto the compact companion, releasing intense X-rays that make them some of the most luminous sources in the sky. Microquasars, […]