The Icecube Office

Going to office in this bitter cold in Delhi isn’t fun, but spare a thought for the scientists working at the IceCube, an observatory built in Antarctica.

Going to office in this bitter cold in Delhi isn’t fun, but spare a thought for the scientists working at the IceCube, an observatory built in Antarctica. ‘Inside Antarctica’ is probably a more accurate description of its location, as it is built 1,400 metres under all the ice and snow. What could possibly be of interest in such a hellish location? Neutrinos.

The cube is a network of 5,160 optical sensors, each about the size of a basketball, designed to detect neutrinos, subatomic particles that race along at the near speed of light. They’re so small that they don’t even disturb molecules as they pass through solid matter, and are able to cover massive distances in space without being absorbed or deflected. Scientists believe neutrinos are created when violent cosmic events, like collisions of galaxies or black holes, occur. It is believed they can provide information on these cataclysmic events. The problem is finding them. That’s why the IceCube was built. Scientists are hoping to catch the rare event when a neutrino crashes into an atom—making up the molecules of ice.

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TCA Sharad Raghavan