Photo Credit: Keith Vanderlinde/Antarctic Photo Library

The IceCube neutrino detector laboratory collects the data from the strings of detectors buried in the ice below the South Pole. Winter-over scientists with IceCube and the South Pole Telescope will take part in a 24-hour Webcast in celebration of astronomy around the world.

Two National Science Foundation experiments at South Pole Station will be featured in a live Webcast as part of a special event marking the 2009 International Year of Astronomy .

Photo Credit: Keith Vanderlinde/Antarctic Photo Library

The South Pole Telescope during the austral winter.

Scientists spending the winter at the U.S. Antarctic Program's most southerly research station will discuss their work on the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and IceCube neutrino detector . The former is searching the universe to learn more about dark energy, a mysterious phenomenon causing the universe to accelerate.

Located within a cubic kilometer of solid ice, IceCube is another major experiment hoping to learn more about neutrinos, high-energy particles that pass through the Earth from distant corners of the universe following such cosmic cataclysms as exploding stars.

The observatories will be featured with many others in a 24-hour Webcast called "Around the World in 80 Telescopes." The event begins online today at 5 a.m. Eastern time. The South Pole Webcast is scheduled to begin at 3:25 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday, April 4.