IceCube
When it's completed in 2009, IceCube, an international neutrino experiment
involving more than 20 research institutions, will become the largest
particle detector ever built. Setting IceCube's 4,200 optical modules deep within the South Pole, where the detector joins its predecessor,
AMANDA, will require drilling 70 holes a a mile and a half deep each using a novel hot-water drill, part of which is seen here. The detector's goal will be to
investigate the still-mysterious sources of cosmic rays. IceCube's telescope
will use the Antarctic ice to look for the signatures of cosmic neutrinos,
elusive particles produced in violent cosmic events such as colliding galaxies,
black holes, quasars, and other phenomena occurring at the margins of the
universe.
