It’s night at the South Pole—dark skies all the time, no sunlight for months—but that doesn’t mean there is no light. Last week, IceCube’s winterovers found clear skies with enough light from the stars and auroras overhead that they didn’t need to rely on their headlamps as they made their way to the IceCube Lab […]
Some people love to camp out in tents. But outside at the South Pole? Not sure how many takers there would be for that. Last week, however, intrepid IceCube winterover Josh willingly spent the night in a tent pitched outside the South Pole station’s main entrance. Looks like he rested peacefully, as shown below. Above, […]
The moon was out big time last week, and it was bright enough to allow the IceCube winterovers to turn off their headlamps a bit while they were working outside. Both the above and below images show Josh in the middle of removing the cover from the IceAct telescope that is on the roof of […]
It was the beginning of a grand experiment unlike anything the world had ever seen. Ten years ago today, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory fully opened its eyes for the first time. Over the course of the previous seven years, dozens of intrepid technicians, engineers, and scientists had traveled to the South Pole—one of the coldest, […]
Among all the healthy activities at the Pole lately is the “Climb to Mt. Everest” challenge, performed by climbing the stairs of the “beer can” (the vertical tower at the end of the station that connects the levels). The tower has 94 steps, and winterovers Josh and Martin are doing five beer cans a day, […]
The first auroras of the season are in! This is always such an exciting time, not only for those folks lucky enough to be at the Pole but also for those of us who only get the long-distance armchair experience. In IceCube winterover Martin’s selfie below, it almost looks as though he is somehow creating […]
So, how many South Poles are there? Above we see a beautiful sunset image taken last week at the Pole. This location is the ceremonial South Pole, easy to identify by the lineup of flags representing the original signatories of the Antarctic Treaty. It’s a place for photo ops, but it’s not what’s generally referred […]
Our sun shines not only in light but also in neutrinos. These tiny, chargeless, and nearly massless particles are produced deep in the sun’s core, but we also expect them to be created in the solar atmosphere, either by collisions of cosmic rays or during solar flares. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, a […]
Let the twilight begin! Even though twilight occurs only twice a year at the South Pole, it is a drawn out process that lasts weeks instead of hours. At sunset, the light outside slowly dwindles before leaving the Pole in complete darkness. Even then, it’s not always fully dark since, while the sun may be […]
It was all about the sun last week at the Pole. Weather conditions allowed the winterovers to glimpse the green flash as the sun finally set below the horizon. IceCube winterover Martin was in the right place at the right time to capture a photograph of it, above (and it wasn’t his first time). The […]