IceCube is located beneath the Antarctic ice, at depths of up to 2 kilometres, and occupies about one cubic kilometre of ice. Its construction was completed in 2011.
Dr Paweł Janowski of AGH University of Krakow described the development of the detector as a “triumph of the human mind”, stressing the scale of the effort required to devise and build such equipment.
Janowski explained that the observatory uses the Antarctic ice as a naturally occurring, highly transparent medium.
When a neutrino interacts with matter in the ice, it can produce a charged particle travelling faster than the speed of light in that medium, producing a faint blue flash. Detectors register and analyse these signals.
IceCube contains around 5,000 photodetectors distributed through the roughly one-cubic-kilometre volume of ice.
Prof Tomasz Bulik of the University of Warsaw said neutrinos are produced in extreme environments involving nuclear reactions that cannot be reproduced on Earth.
Prof Dariusz Kajewski of the University of Silesia described the work as a major achievement that is helping develop a new field of particle astronomy. He also noted that technology developed alongside fundamental research can have future applications.
Dr Grzegorz Łach of the University of Warsaw said IceCube had opened a new window onto the Universe, allowing scientists to observe the cosmos through neutrinos in addition to electromagnetic radiation.
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Source: PAP