Since then, IceCube has been watching the cosmos and collecting data continuously for a decade.
IceCube began full operations on – ten years ago today – when the detector took its first set of data as a completed instrument. Over the course of the next decade, they would be proven right. IceCube’s founders believed that studying these astrophysical neutrinos would reveal hidden parts of the universe.
The purpose of the unconventional telescope was to detect signals from passing astrophysical neutrinos: mysterious, tiny, extremely lightweight particles created by some of the most energetic and distant phenomena in the cosmos. On December 18, 2010, the 5,160 th light sensor was deployed in the ice, completing the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The result was a hexagonal grid of sensors embedded in a cubic kilometer of ice about a mile below the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet. Crews drilled 86 holes nearly two-and-a-half kilometers deep and lowered a cable strung with 60 basketball-sized light detectors into each hole. 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, driest, and most isolated places on Earth – to build the biggest, strangest telescope in the world. Ten years ago today, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory fully opened its eyes for the first time. It was the beginning of a grand experiment unlike anything the world had ever seen. This feature was adapted from a release produced by the IceCube Collaboration. Read the original release
Pomerantz Observatory) was decommissioned in July and August 2009.A winter photo of scientists at the IceCube Collaboration (Credit: Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF) Such a new view into the cosmos could give important clues in the search for dark matter and other astrophysical phenomena.Īfter two years of integrated operation as part of IceCube, the AMANDA counting house (in the Martin A. Super-Kamiokande can look at much greater detail at neutrinos from the Sun and those generated in the Earth's atmosphere however, at higher energies, the spectrum should include neutrinos dominated by those from sources outside the solar system. Compared to underground detectors like Super-Kamiokande in Japan, AMANDA was capable of looking at higher energy neutrinos because it is not limited in volume to a manmade tank however, it had much less accuracy because of the less controlled conditions and wider spacing of photomultipliers. The optical modules detect the Cherenkov radiation from these latter particles, and by analysis of the timing of photon hits can approximately determine the direction of the original neutrino with a spatial resolution of approximately 2 degrees.ĪMANDA's goal was an attempt at neutrino astronomy, identifying and characterizing extra-solar sources of neutrinos. The neutrino interacts with nuclei of oxygen or hydrogen atoms contained in the surrounding water ice through the weak nuclear force, producing a muon and a hadronic shower. Diagram from the related precursor Project DUMAND illustrating the strings of sensors and detail of one of the sensorsĪMANDA detects very high energy neutrinos (50+ GeV) which pass through the Earth from the northern hemisphere and then react just as they are leaving upwards through the Antarctic ice.