A Telescope In a Cubic Kilometer of Ice

Roland Piquepaille writes "University of Delaware (UD) scientists and engineers are currently working at the South Pole under very harsh conditions. This research team is one of the many other ones working on the construction of IceCube, the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice, far beneath the continent's snow-covered surface. When it is completed in 2011, the telescope array will occupy a cubic kilometer of Antarctica. One of the lead researchers said that 'IceCube will provide new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos.' The UD team has even opened a blog to cover this expedition. It will be opened up to December 22, 2008. I guess they want to be back in Delaware for Christmas, but read more for additional details and references, including a diagram of this telescope array built inside ice."

Comments

Does not look promising

[pwnies]

I gotta say, just based on personal experience here, that the outlook for this project doesn't look good. The last underground science facility I worked at over in Raccoon City just didn't work out in the long run.

Re:Does not look promising

[Sponge Bath]

Dangerous things found in Antarctica:
'The Thing' (Kurt Russel in a Cowboy hat!)
The Borg from Star Trek
Aliens v Predator
Vicious Penguins

Re:Does not look promising

[A. B3ttik]

Really? The underground science facility I work at over at Black Mesa is more productive than ever. In fact, we're boosting the antimass spectrometer to 105% for a big test tomorrow.

Re:Does not look promising

[Nazlfrag]

Nobody cares about the Secret Nazi UFO bases anymore :!(

Re:Does not look promising

[MadUndergrad]

You Black Mesa hotshots get all the fat government contracts. Just you wait til we get GLaDOS out of beta (although, it's been in beta so long you'd think we were Google).

Nutrinoes!

[Jonah Bomber]

Who doesn't love 'em!

Bullcrap!

[cashman73]

Yeah, it's a telescope alright! Ha! Ha! I got $500 that says they found a second Stargate down there!

Re:Bullcrap!

[maxume]

Not since he let himself go anyway.

Christmas massacre

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, the British members of the team probably don't want to be in Delaware for Christmas. Americans have a history of massacring the British on Christmas in Delaware.

Cool!

[syngularyx]

This is exactly what I mean by a really cool thing!

Does Ice Cube approve

[line-bundle]

Definitely Ice Cube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Cube won't like it.

Perhaps time to call in the RIAA and fix this.

Re:Does Ice Cube approve

[Chris Burke]

Ooh, the temptation to alter the wiki pages to say Ice Cube is the spokesperson for the neutrino detector is huge... Must... resist... Vandalism... bad...

South central actually...

[MRe_nl]

Neutrino's with Attitude!

The Hardest Part

[Greyfox]

Is getting the purchase order for a cubic kilometer of gin through the purchasing system.

Ice...for now.

[MMC Monster]

By the time it is finished, it will be in a cubic kilometer of water.

Re:Ice...for now.

[dangitman]

"Where the f*ck are all the environmentalists?"

On ice.

Re:Big Science

[rcw-home]

Where's the IBM of telescopes?

That's kinda like asking "Where's the IBM of marble sculpture?"

You can mass-produce ICs. If you've found a way to mass-produce large parabolic or hyperbolic wavelength-accurate mirrors, well, you should definitely submit that one to Slashdot, OK?

Delawhere?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm from Delaware and I don't want to go back for Christmas! Even Antartica is probably a step up...

IceCube? Violence?

[therufus]

'IceCube will provide new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos.'

So NWA have a new album out? O.o

Re:You're gonna want ice after practicing THIS:

[xonar]

Oh My God

Wait...

Oh my god...

*holds self*

Beware of Deep Ones

[Arancaytar]

A word of advice: If you wake any squid-headed star-spawned monstrosity deep beneath the mountains of madness, run.