Week 52—the last of 2022—was a busy week at the South Pole. Some of IceCube’s summer staff were leaving by the end of the week, so there were some minor items to finish up before then. Also, the second South Pole overland traverse (SPoT2) arrived, with more fuel for the station and some IceCube Upgrade […]
There was lots of activity at the Pole last week. Some IceCube summer crew members are now there working alongside the winterovers. The early part of the week was dedicated to hardware repairs and upgrades at the IceCube Lab. They also packed up cargo, including hard drives destined for long-term storage in Madison, which they […]
It’s almost the new year, which means it’s time for the 2023 IceCube Calendar! Featuring breathtaking photos taken by our winterovers from the past few years, this calendar will teach you something new about the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the South Pole every month. The calendar is available to download in three different sizes in either […]
Ahh, summer! Sunshine and warm lazy days. At the South Pole, though, you only get the sunshine (unless it’s cloudy), but not the warmth. Summer at the Pole also means more people coming to the station. Among the group arriving in the photo above are three members of the IceCube team. They received a special […]
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a one-of-a-kind detector operating at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, searches for neutrinos—tiny, ghost-like particles that can travel extremely long distances unperturbed. Of particular interest to IceCube are astrophysical neutrinos, high-energy neutrinos originating from beyond our galaxy. Because they can travel straight distances, they can be traced back to their sources. […]
It was a busy week at the Pole. Cargo destined for the IceCube Lab arrived, shown above while it was being unloaded. Below, a smaller load of cargo is packed on a sled to get it back to the station by snowmobile. Besides dealing with heavy boxes, IceCube’s winterovers were busy with computer upgrades and […]
Bad weather and low visibility gave a misty, floating appearance to the IceCube Lab (ICL) last week—view of its staircase above and the whole lab below. IceCube’s new winterovers spent some time at the ICL upgrading servers as well as offering tours to South Pole station personnel. A flight brought some new people to the […]
And then there were two. Last week at the Pole, IceCube’s previous winterovers, Celas and Moreno (shown above), left the ice for warmer climes. Newcomers Hrvoje and Marc continued settling into their new lives at the station. The detector remained quiet for them this week, giving them more opportunity to tackle some special projects on […]
The origin of high-energy cosmic rays remains a long-standing mystery in particle astrophysics. However, it is thought that they are accelerated by galactic sources called PeVatrons, capable of accelerating particles to energies greater than 1 PeV. Some candidate galactic PeVatrons include pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe)—a type of nebula generated by strong winds of charged particles […]
Finally, the annual changing of the guard for IceCube winterovers took place last week at the Pole. Newcomers Hrvoje Dujmovic and Marc Jacquart arrived in time to get in a little training with outgoing winterovers Celas Marie-Sainte and Moreno Baricevic—all four in the photo above. Hrvoje and Marc, who will be at the Pole for […]