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Science - Space and Atmospheric Physics

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Balloon-borne telescopes take baby pictures of the cosmos

Balloon-borne telescopes take baby pictures of the cosmos

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics
Monday March 06, 2023

The SPIDER instrument has finished its 16-day voyage through the stratosphere above Antarctica, completing the second and final flight of its mission to search for evidence of gravitational waves from the earliest moments of the universe.


Ghost particles give scientists first look inside an active galaxy

Ghost particles give scientists first look inside an active galaxy

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics
Monday January 30, 2023

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has detected about 80 high-energy neutrinos emitted by a single active galaxy over the course of ten years.


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Jan
09
2023

South Pole winter crew participate in virtual reality study

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

Station staff tested a therapy that could be used on future space missions


Mar
14
2022

Where are IceCube's neutrinos coming from?

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

Thanks to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, scientists have identified several types of cosmic structures that produce neutrinos.


Mar
07
2022

Six stunning photos from the Antarctic solar eclipse

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

A total solar eclipse passed over Antarctica on December 4, 2021, a rare and exciting celestial event for the southernmost continent.


Nov
23
2021

Scientists prepare for rare Antarctic solar eclipse

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

Antarctica will experience a total solar eclipse next Saturday, a rare occurrence that will give scientists insight into the behavior of Earth's upper atmosphere.


Oct
12
2020

Southernmost Telescope Gets an Array of Upgrades

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

One of the telescopes at the bottom of the world is getting a major upgrade. The South Pole's venerable Keck Array is being reconstituted into the more powerful BICEP Array, making it more sensitive and better able to observe the most ancient light in the universe.


Sep
28
2020

Heavy Cosmic Rays - Part II: The Death and Life of SuperTIGER-II

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

The season before SuperTIGER-II's successful 2019 flight, the payload had an unexpectedly short flight over Antarctica. Brought down after less than a day because of a problem with the balloon carrying it, it landed in a crevasse field 150 miles from McMurdo Station. This could easily have ended in calamity. Instead, it led to one of the most daring and complicated recoveries of a long-duration balloon payload in recent memory.


Sep
14
2020

Heavy Cosmic Rays - Part I: The Flight of SuperTIGER-II

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

In December 2019, SuperTIGER clawed its way back into the upper atmosphere. The second flight of the SuperTIGER cosmic ray experiment, officially dubbed SuperTIGER-II, flew high above the icy continent for more than a month, collecting data on the high-energy particles that zip through the cosmos.


Apr
27
2020

Stringing Together More Neutrino Detectors

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

The biggest experiment at the South Pole is getting a significant upgrade. Over the next three years, IceCube, the neutrino detector located at the South Pole, will be getting numerous new detectors added to its core. It's the biggest upgrade to the IceCube detector since its completion in 2010.


Sep
04
2019

Plasma Patch Atlas

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

High above the surface of the Earth, flow giant, invisible clouds of charged gas that can degrade radio transmissions, disrupt GPS Signals and play havoc with other communications and navigation systems. But they're not always showing up when scientists predicted. This year geophysicist Alex Chartier traveled across Antarctica to figure out what's going on in Earth's upper atmosphere.


Jul
23
2019

The Flight of X-Calibur

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

Antarctica can be a double-edged sword for astronomers: conditions there are some of the best in the world for observing the heavens, but the harshness of the place can be hard on equipment. In December 2018, astronomers who launched the x-ray telescope "X-Calibur" to study neutron stars and black holes got a taste of that contrast.


Jul
12
2018

Neutrinos Point The Way To Cosmic Rays

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

Using data gathered by the National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, scientists have for the first time identified a super massive black hole as the source of some of the highest energy cosmic rays.


Dec
20
2017

The South Pole Telescope's New Eyes

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

The telescope at the bottom of the planet spent winter calibrating and collecting data after its vision enhancement last summer. Researchers installed a new camera system in the South Pole Telescope, a major upgrade that allows researchers to collect more data than ever before.


Oct
05
2016

GRIPS' Moment Under the Sun

Science | Space and Atmospheric Physics

As a giant helium balloon lifted the alabaster solar telescope GRIPS (Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar Flares) aloft, the excitement on the ground was palpable. The team of researchers, who had spent seven years working on the project, jumped for joy and snapped photos of their experiment in the air for the first time.


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