Oct
05
2016
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GRIPS' Moment Under the Sun
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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Aug
01
2016
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Searching for Inflation
Scientists working at the South Pole are trying to detect the imprints of gravitational waves from when the universe was only a tiny fraction (about one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth) of a second old. But first, they have to finish clearing away the galactic dust obscuring their view.
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Apr
04
2016
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The Stuff Between the Stars
Four years ago, scientists set up the High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz (HEAT) telescope in the middle of the high Antarctic plateau, more than 500 miles from the South Pole. The harsh environment and unique atmospheric conditions here make it one of the best places on Earth to study the cosmos.
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Feb
09
2016
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A New Home for an Old Experiment
The longest running experiment at McMurdo is leaving the station, but it's not moving too far away, Antarctically speaking. The CosRay experiment, which has been recording changes in the stream of cosmic rays striking Earth since 1960, is relocating to the new South Korean station, Jang Bogo, about 230 miles away.
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Apr
27
2015
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A Sticky Problem
A telescope launched 35 kilometers into the stratosphere above Antarctica had a singular mission: to detect the impossibly faint signal from when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light, a theory known as cosmological inflation.
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Jun
26
2014
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Joining Together
The South Pole Telescope has been involved in investigating some of the greatest mysteries of the universe. Now the powerful instrument in Antarctica will be used to form an Earth-sized telescope to study a black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
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Jun
20
2014
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Global Effort
The South Pole and McMurdo SuperDARN radars are part of a global network tracking the sun's interaction with the Earth's upper atmosphere to better understand so-called space weather.
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Mar
18
2014
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Clear Signal
Researchers with the BICEP2 collaboration recently announced that their telescope in Antarctica has allowed them to collect what they believe is the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation.
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Dec
20
2013
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Major Upgrade
Austral summers are not as exciting now as they once were when the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was under construction at the South Pole Station. But quality data collection still depends on how much can be done during the brief summer. This one will be especially busy with a major upgrade under way.
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Dec
11
2013
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From a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Researchers with the IceCube collaboration have announced that a National Science Foundation (NSF)-built detector at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station allowed them to observe 28 very high-energy neutrinos that constitute the first solid evidence for astrophysical neutrinos from cosmic accelerators such as black holes.
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Nov
07
2013
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A Bigger Mousetrap
To catch the elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos is not just a matter of building a better mousetrap. You need a really, really BIG mousetrap. Scientists at the South Pole hope to construct a 100-square-kilometer neutrino detector to capture the highest energy neutrinos theorized to exist.
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Sep
27
2013
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Opposite Ends
When solar wind lashes the Earth's upper atmosphere, the polar regions react with a brilliant light show known as auroras. But do the ends of the Earth react similarly? Scientists are installing an array of instruments in remote East Antarctica to find out.
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Sep
20
2013
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New Mode of Discovery
Scientists using the South Pole Telescope became the first team to detect a long-predicted polarization pattern in the afterglow of the Big Bang. The detection of this signal is a milestone along the way toward understanding cosmic inflation, the period of extremely rapid expansion of the universe.
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Neutrinos Point The Way To Cosmic Rays
The South Pole Telescope's New Eyes
