Oct 20 2010
Researchers have identified that a telescope that has been placed a long way under the ice of Antarctica is capable of tracking strange particles that have fallen down to the Earth from the galaxy.
The Daily Telegraph published that the scientists incorporated sensing devices deep into the Antarctica’s ice cap to track the momentary reflections of light that occur when the cosmic rays and illusory neutrinos bombard the atoms present on the ice. The bombardments occur less frequently, say a very few in one year, and the researchers stated that they have recorded such collisions since its initial installation in 2006, reports the newspaper.
The mode of the light collected by the sensing devices facilitates the researchers to map the path of the elements and the rays to understand its origin. The final stage of the integration process will be accomplished in December, 2010 and the scientists have already started evaluating the information obtained from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
The information indicates that certain concentration of cosmic rays that approaches from the Vela constellation in the area of Southern Hemisphere is thought to be a zone of the space which sheds enormous amount of radiation across the galaxy. According to the researchers, after the finalization of the observatory, they can precisely track the source of the origin of the intense energy neutrinos and cosmic rays.
The University of Wisconsin, Madison scientists, who carried out this research work, will be installing over 5,000 optical sensing units one cubic kilometer to about 0.2 cubic mile depth underneath the ice.
Source: http://www.wisc.edu