Some weeks at the Pole are busier than others, and last week was one of the busy ones. IceCube winterovers made not one but two trips out to the IceCube Lab. The first trip was planned and entailed replacing a hard drive while also fitting in some inclinometer measurements while they were out there. The […]
It’s getting obviously lighter outside, but thanks to clear skies (and intrepid winterover-photographers), we are still being treated to some wonderful images of the stars and auroras over the South Pole landscape. Above is the ceremonial pole as the sun rises behind the flags. After taking this photo, winterover Martin turned around to photograph the […]
Lots of fun was being had last week at the Pole. First up, there was a trivia night paired with a burger bar, which definitely wasn’t offering standard fare. IceCube winterover Josh ordered up the “Mountain of madness.” Then there was Josh’s dishpit assignment, not normally an event one looks forward to but which was […]
The IceCube Collaboration has teamed up with NASA’s High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) to share 10 years of IceCube data with the public. Supported by the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and a service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the HEASARC is the primary […]
Last week was the annual Polympics—just like the real Olympics, only … very different. At the South Pole, they compete in nonstandard events, where sometimes the rules are arbitrary and people argue about them. (It adds to the fun!) This year, there was the traditional sled pull, in which three team members pull a fourth […]
Machine learning has arrived at the South Pole. Well, not literally, but machine learning is now being applied to data collected at the South Pole by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, an unconventional telescope made up of thousands of sensors buried in ice. IceCube’s goal is to detect tiny, nearly massless particles called neutrinos that fly […]
Lighter days are coming, but last week there were still opportunities to take pictures outside in total darkness, and IceCube winterover Martin cashed in. Check out these great images he captured at the IceCube Lab (ICL). Above is the ICL, backlit by a strong auroras and angled almost as if pointing up toward the clearly […]
Last week marked the end of the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, the largest conference in the world for cosmic ray physics. This year, the entire conference was hosted virtually, which allowed more people from an expanded geographic range to attend; there were approximately 1,800 participants from 55 countries who contributed around 1,350 papers. It […]
There wasn’t a whole lot happening at the South Pole station last week, which gave time for IceCube’s winterovers to realize their “dark” days are quickly coming to an end. Soon the moon will be out for a while, and shortly after that astronomical twilight will begin. Meanwhile, remember the “Climb to Mt. Everest” challenge, […]
A new art–science exhibition at the Hanyang University Museum in Seoul, South Korea, features the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The exhibit, titled “The Cosmonaut,” is the creation of Dr. Michael Hoch, a scientist, artist, and educationalist with CERN’s CMS experiment who founded the art@CMS and ORIGIN programs “to foster cross-disciplinary science education engagement and networking with […]