Week 41 at the Pole

Well, there it is, the first plane to arrive at the South Pole for the season—a Basler. It only stopped long enough to refuel, but that was plenty of time to unload its precious cargo of fresh fruit. […]

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IceCube and PICO set new constraints on properties of dark matter particles

Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy and physics. In a paper recently submitted to the European Physical Journal C, scientists from IceCube and PICO determined new constraints on particle physics properties of dark matter. Though these are less stringent than previous constraints, they take into consideration the latest research on the distribution of dark matter in our galaxy. […]

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Week 40 at the Pole

The sun is well above the horizon, so there’s plenty of light for outdoor photography. And IceCube’s winterovers got right out there to take some splashy photos—that actually involved a splash of sorts, by throwing water out into an arc overhead that quickly turned into a spray of ice crystals. […]

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Week 39 at the Pole

The sunrise is over now at the South Pole, with the sun fully risen. But if you position yourself just so, near a large snowdrift, it can almost appear as though the sun is rising right there. […]

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Week 37 at the Pole

Some weeks at the Pole are quiet, and some—like last week—are busy. The IceCube detector had a number of hiccups that required the winterovers’ attention. On top of taking care of IceCube, there were plenty of other things to attend to as far as getting the station ready for the summer crews. […]

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