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Science & Medicine

How to find neutrinos in underground ice

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica is the world's largest neutrino detector. Its computers collect raw data on neutrino activity from sensors in the ice that look for light emitted when neutrinos strike.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica is the world’s largest neutrino detector. Its computers collect raw data on neutrino activity from sensors in the ice that look for light emitted when neutrinos strike.  (Sven Lidstrom / IceCube Neutrino Observatory / National Science Foundation)

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For the first time in more than 25 years, scientists have detected neutrinos from outside our solar system. The neutrinos were caught in the act of zooming through a giant block of ice a mile below the South Pole. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has detected 28 of the subatomic particles since it opened in 2010, according to a new report in the journal Science.

Neutrino detector

A digital optical module, or DOM, is lowered into the hole of an IceCube string. The IceCube detector consists of 86 strings of DOMs, which look for light when neutrinos strike the ice.  (Jim Haugen / IceCube Neutrino Observatory / National Science Foundation)

Building the detector

Members of the IceCube Collaboration pull cables to connect light sensors deployed in subsurface ice to the laboratory’s servers in December 2010. The work was carried out at temperatures as low as 25 degrees below zero.  (Freija Descamps / IceCube Neutrino Observatory / National Science Foundation)

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