Neutrinos in the deep freeze

Science - Pete Wilton | 19 Oct 10. Tiny flashes of blue light from 1,400 metres beneath the icy South Pole could help scientists uncover the origins of cosmic rays and neutrinos. These flashes, which occur when neutrinos created by cosmic rays strike ice atoms, are being detected by IceCube : a 'telescope' made up of thousands of optical sensors buried deep in the Antarctic ice. This chilly location is ideal because the ice is very clear, as it's free of air bubbles and other distortions. Subir Sarkar of Oxford University's Department of Physics leads the British involvement in IceCube, he told The Telegraph 's Richard Gray: 'Cosmic rays were discovered 100 years ago, but we still have no idea where they come from. At first glance, IceCube seems like a crazy experiment. How can you study the sky when you bury your detectors a mile beneath the ice? But it gives us a new way of tracing their paths back to their source.' 'The real excitement is that neutrinos and cosmic rays will reveal an entirely new way of looking at the universe and allow us to see into places where we haven't been able to before.' 'Currently we have no way of peering into black holes through the dust and gas that surrounds them, so if high energy neutrinos are being emitted from their fringes, then we can 'see' into places we haven't been able to before.