Neutrino astronomy: Stirrings at the South Pole

High-energy neutrino astronomy, first mooted over 40 years ago, comes a step nearer to reality this week. This new form of astronomy will offer a new deep view of the Universe, as these weakly interacting neutral particles reach us with virtually no disruption from their sources or intervening matter. A paper in Nature in September 1991 proposed that the Antarctic ice could be transformed into a 'geological telescope', massive amounts of ice serving the same neutrino detection role as the vats of water used in underground neutrino detection experiments. The first results from a pilot project, AMANDA (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array), running at the Amundsen-Scott station near the South Pole, report the successful detection of high-energy neutrinos from cosmic sources. With the technology proven, astronomers are now planning a functional neutrino telescope to be called IceCube, with an effective area of 1 square kilometre.

Observation of high-energy neutrinos using Cerenkov detectors embedded deep in Antarctic ice
E. ANDR�S et al.
Nature 410, 441-443 (22 March 2001)
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22 March 2001 table of contents