When a star dies, it succumbs to gravitational forces, collapsing into a tiny star made of densely packed neutrons or even forming a black hole that swallows everything up. As matter continues to fall into the star’s core, matter bouncing back triggers what are called core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Shortly after most collapses, a new and […]
The moon was bright at the Pole last week. And it sufficiently illuminated IceCube’s winterovers Marc and Hrvoje as they “relaxed” on a snowdrift in front of the IceCube Lab (ICL). They were paged for a power issue but were also busy in general last week with routine maintenance. Below is an inside view of […]
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 theme for last week at the Pole was “tall.” IceCube winterover Marc captured a nice photograph of the moon shining brightly through some striated clouds, with the ARO tower shown front and center. ARO stands for Atmospheric Research Observatory, which is located in the Clean Air Sector at the South Pole. In the summer […]
For such a remote, isolated location, the South Pole tends to have a lot of activity most weeks. Last week, IceCube’s winterovers were treated to a middle-of-the-night (!) page for issues on a couple of DOMs, but power cycling resolved things so at least they were able to get back to sleep pretty quickly. The […]
Hans Niederhausen, IceCube collaborator and postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University (MSU), has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Shakti P. Duggal Award presented by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). Niederhausen was acknowledged for “his development and application of advanced analysis methods in neutrino astronomy.” The Duggal Award […]
IceCube collaborator Lu Lu received a 2023 International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Early Career Scientist Prize “for her contributions to the development of high energy neutrino astronomy in the PeV energy region.” Lu accepted the award on July 27 during the opening ceremony at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) held […]
The sources of cosmic rays—extremely energetic particles that rain down on Earth—have been a long-standing mystery in the field of astronomy. Cosmic-ray accelerators in the PeV energy range, known as PeVatrons, produce pions when the cosmic rays interact with their surroundings. These pions then decay into gamma rays and nearly massless particles called neutrinos. These […]
Christmas in July continued last week with all sorts of activities, ranging from a pool tournament to a pie-eating contest. And for those who enjoy competitive eating, they weren’t limited to just pies—a “donuts on a string” eating contest was also part of the festivities. In addition, the station held a Christmas trivia night and […]
A barren landscape, the South Pole is actually a desert. It’s not the kind of desert most people imagine, with lots of sand and heat and maybe a camel ambling by. Instead of sand, there’s snow. But almost all of that snow has blown in from more coastal regions of the continent, ushered in from […]