Cosmic rays are charged particles that rain down on Earth from space, with energies that can reach as high as a fast-thrown baseball packed into a single subatomic particle. Although a lot is known about cosmic rays, their origin still remains a century-old mystery. The highest energy particles, called ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), are closely […]
Last week, things were quiet for IceCube’s winteovers as well as for the South Pole station in general, in recovery mode after the midwinter celebrations. But the skies weren’t quiet—the stars were out and auroras danced overhead. On one occasion, a large green auroa almost filled the entire sky, enough to fill one’s head with […]
Over 200 students across 18 institutions in Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, and the United States participated in the twelfth annual edition of IceCube Masterclass. The masterclasses were held between the months of March and May, with the Institute of Physics (IOP) in India and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, hosting masterclasses for the first […]
Wash, rinse, and repeat. You have two seasons at the Pole, summer and winter. Summer is long gone and now it’s not only winter but midwinter, which means the station has been closed for a while now and they’ve reached their halfway mark. But as the second half of winter unfolds, there will still be […]
When charged particles from outer space called cosmic rays collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere, they create a shower of secondary particles (air showers) that cascade down to Earth. These secondary particles include photons, electrons, and muons. Some of these secondary particles reach the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, a detector consisting […]
Last week’s outdoor photographs from the Pole have gone from colorful to more black and white (with some red accents) thanks to a bright moon and no auroras in sight. It was a relatively quiet week. IceCube’s winterovers were busy doing test runs in preparation for the start of the next physics run season. The […]
To really enjoy auroras, you want a nice dark sky. And in winter, the South Pole enjoys very dark skies (also great for stargazing). Last week, aurora-viewing conditions were favorable, and the Pole was treated to a variety of displays, including some with a mix of colors and others where big green auroras dominated. But […]
When cosmic rays crash into the Earth’s atmosphere, air showers containing atmospheric muons and neutrinos are produced. The atmospheric neutrinos are then detected by DeepCore, a denser array of sensors in the bottom center of the IceCube detector at the South Pole. Compared to the main IceCube detector, DeepCore is sensitive to neutrinos down to […]
It was a rather quiet week at the Pole. Not in the skies, though, where auroras continued to dance and the multitude of stars competed for attention. The bottom photo gives the stars a little bit more of the glory. Though many of us may have never witnessed a display of auroras, we’ve undoubtedly looked […]
Sometimes it feels almost as if the auroras are trying to say something, scrawling an unintelligible script across the sky. Last week at the Pole, IceCube’s winterovers were out at the IceCube Lab, checking on the IceACT unit up on the roof and capturing some nice images of the auroras and stars. They have been […]