It is the world's coldest physics laboratory. It is located under thick layer of ice. It studies about the sub-atomic particles called neutrino
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The world's coldest physics laboratory is Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory (or simply Ice Cube),a neutrino observatory located atthe Amundsen–Scott South PoleStation in Antarctica.It consists of thousands of sensors that is systematically distributed under the Antarctic ice. IceCube consists of spherical optical sensors called Digital Optical Modules (DOMs) spread over a cubic kilometre of volume. Ice Cube was eventually completed on 18 December 2010. In November 2013, it was publicly announced that Ice Cube detected 28 neutrinos that may have its origin external to the Solar System.
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Neutrinos are subatomic particles which are extremely abundant and rarely interact with matter. In fact, as Darren Grant, a University of Alberta physicist explained on this weeks episode of Quirks & Quarks, 10 billion neutrinos pass through your thumbnail every second! We never notice them though, because they very rarely interact with matter.
However, if you install enough detectors in the right kind of medium, eventually a neutrino will interact with that material and you will be able to see it.
So why ice? Well the Antarctic ice is both very thick and very transparent. When a neutrino eventually interacts with an ice molecule, it will emit what is called Cherenkov radiation. This is the same type of radiation that causes the weird blue glow in a nuclear reactor.
Cherenkov radiation glowing in the core of the Advanced Test Reactor. Via Wikipedia
On Quirks and Quarks, Dr. Grant explains that Cherenkov radiation is kind of like a “an optical equivalent of a sonic boom”. Basically after the neutrino interacts with the ice it will eject a muon from the ice molecule (a muon is an elementary particle similar to an electron, but 200 times bigger). As the muon travels through the ice, it travels faster than the speed of light through ice. This disrupts the electromagnetic field of neighbouring particles and generates the blue glow of Cherenkov radiation, which is then detected by IceCube.
[Aside: Some of you may be thinking “Whoa! How can it travel faster than the speed of light?”. Be assured that relativity still holds in this situation. That is because the muon is still travelling slower than the speed of light in a vacuum. Since light moves more slowly through ice than it does in a vacuum, the muon will travel faster than light through ice, but still slower than light through a vacuum.]
So why study neutrinos? Well they are quite useful to astronomers because they can travel from distant stars and galaxies without interacting with magnetic fields or matter. Thus they are like a direct messenger from whatever it is the scientist is studying.
Because of IceCube’s size, it is able to detect the highest energy neutrinos, allowing scientists to study supernova, gamma ray bursts and even dark matter.
However, if you install enough detectors in the right kind of medium, eventually a neutrino will interact with that material and you will be able to see it.
So why ice? Well the Antarctic ice is both very thick and very transparent. When a neutrino eventually interacts with an ice molecule, it will emit what is called Cherenkov radiation. This is the same type of radiation that causes the weird blue glow in a nuclear reactor.
Cherenkov radiation glowing in the core of the Advanced Test Reactor. Via Wikipedia
On Quirks and Quarks, Dr. Grant explains that Cherenkov radiation is kind of like a “an optical equivalent of a sonic boom”. Basically after the neutrino interacts with the ice it will eject a muon from the ice molecule (a muon is an elementary particle similar to an electron, but 200 times bigger). As the muon travels through the ice, it travels faster than the speed of light through ice. This disrupts the electromagnetic field of neighbouring particles and generates the blue glow of Cherenkov radiation, which is then detected by IceCube.
[Aside: Some of you may be thinking “Whoa! How can it travel faster than the speed of light?”. Be assured that relativity still holds in this situation. That is because the muon is still travelling slower than the speed of light in a vacuum. Since light moves more slowly through ice than it does in a vacuum, the muon will travel faster than light through ice, but still slower than light through a vacuum.]
So why study neutrinos? Well they are quite useful to astronomers because they can travel from distant stars and galaxies without interacting with magnetic fields or matter. Thus they are like a direct messenger from whatever it is the scientist is studying.
Because of IceCube’s size, it is able to detect the highest energy neutrinos, allowing scientists to study supernova, gamma ray bursts and even dark matter.
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