Telescope glass researches dark matter

Scientists are using the world's largest telescope, buried deep below Antarctica, in an effort to uncover the mystery of microscopic molecules such as neutrinos, hoping to find out how the universe is. form.

The world's largest telescope, called IceCube , takes 10 years to complete. It lies at a depth of 2,400m below the Antarctic ice sheet.

At 1km ³ , the IceCube is larger than the Empire State Building, Chicago Sears Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center combined.

On top of the IceCube in Antarctica, which is fast moving close to the speed of light, the telescope has attracted the attention of countless experts, especially in the context of the science frenzy with the discovery of Higgs particles. the foundation of the universe.

'You raise one finger and hundreds of billions of neutrinos pass through it every second from the sun,' ' said Jenni Adams, a physicist at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) who is working at IceCube.

In fact, IceCube is a series of light detectors buried deep in thick ice thanks to hot water drilling.

When neutrinos interact with ice, they create charged particles before light forms.

The ice acts as a neutrino neutrino, which makes it easier to see. It also protects the telescope against harmful radiation effects.

'If a supernova explosion occurs in the Milky Way, we can detect hundreds of neutrinos thanks to the IceCube,' expert Adams told reporters at the International Conference on Energy Physics. Melbourne (Australia).

Before IceCube was completed in 2010, scientists only observed 14 neutrinos.

Experts hope that by tracking down the source of the neutrino particle, people will hold important clues in their hands to find out what happened in the universe, especially in the invisible parts of matter. dark.