The forbidding Antarctic ice cap has become a new Mecca for astronomers looking to take advantage of the continents many months of darkness and pristine skies. Yet perhaps the most revolutionary astronomy project now under way at the South Pole plans to make use not of its clear views but its surprisingly clear ice.

If they are right, the repercussions would be enormous. Neutrino astronomy could give scientists a view straight to the heart of some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, including quasars and active galactic nuclei (distant galaxies believed to be powered by massive black holes), as well as the sources of mysterious gamma ray bursts and perhaps even the universes origin in the Big Bang.

What makes neutrinos such a good subject for astronomy is that unlike visible light or other forms of radiation they zip through the universe virtually unimpeded. Produced as a byproduct of the nuclear fusion that occurs at the heart of every star, they have no electric charge and-as far as anyone can tell so far-no mass. So if astronomers could detect neutrinos and measure their energy levels they could learn more about what goes on in those stars.

Neutrino detection is also important for studying high-energy sources such as active galactic nuclei. The powerful gravitational pull of these objects and the interstellar dust and gas surrounding them prevent most other forms of energy from escaping. It is as if astronomers, even with radio telescopes and instruments that capture other wavelengths of radiation, were viewing them through a dense fog. Researchers expect that Amanda will see through this turbulence to reveal a sky dotted with heretofore unknown sources of intense energy, thus opening a new chapter in astronomy.

The only problem with neutrinos is that the very property that makes them such valuable sources of information also makes them devilishly difficult to detect. The earth is constantly bathed in a flood of neutrinos, yet astronomers have no way of detecting them directly. Instead, they look for evidence that high-energy neutrinos have collided with the atomic nuclei of surrounding matter. When collisions occur, they give off muons-negatively charged particles that are like electrons but have more than 200 times the mass. These muons give off a bluish light called Cherenkov radiation that cascades away from the crash site like waves from the bow of a boat.

Fortunately, the direction of muons aligns closely with the direction of the neutrinos that produced them. So a three-dimensional Cherenkov light detector, such as that provided by Amandas array of detectors buried beneath the South Pole, could not only confirm that high-energy neutrinos passed through, but also identify their trajectory with better than a 1-degree resolution: good enough to pinpoint their sources in the sky.

An early indication of the promise of muon detection came on February 24, 1987, when astronomers at an observatory in Chile spotted a new supernova. At the same time, neutrino detectors in Kamioka, Japan, and Cleveland, Ohio, registered a sudden flurry of activity, confirming that high-energy neutrino showers are associated with violent astronomical events.

Encouraged by these findings, the U.S. Department of Energy funded DUMAND, the Deep Underwater Muon and Neutrino Detector, which attempted to drop detectors into the deep ocean off Hawaii to hunt for neutrinos in December 1993. But technical problems stalled the project, which was eventually canceled last fall.

Another deepwater project is now under construction by European and U.S. scientists in the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, as Amanda scientists point out, the problem all oceanic detectors face is in filtering out the noise of background radiation from radioactive potassium, which is present in small amounts in ocean water, as well as from bioluminescent bacteria and higher organisms, not to mention the dangers to the instruments from currents and storms.

Conversely, Antarctic ice, which is essentially pure freshwater containing no such contaminants, produces virtually no background radiation. Moreover, once detectors are frozen in the ice, they will not be disturbed.

Read the rest here:

Hunting the Wild Nutrinos