Awesome Detectors

AMANDA
The South Pole is an inhospitable place to build and operate a telescope. But crystal-clear ice is an excellent medium for observing neutrinos as they pass through the Earth. Since 1999, AMANDA, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (seen here during its assembly), has used the Antarctic ice to seek out neutrinos. When the particles interact in the ice they can produce muons, charged particles that are like electrons but heavier. The muons create faint flashes of light as they pass through the ice some 1.2 miles below the surface, where they are sensed by AMANDA's hundreds of light-sensitive phototubes supported on 19 tethers frozen in the ice. AMANDA's goal is to conduct neutrino astronomy, identifying and characterizing extra-solar sources of neutrinos, which could provide important clues in the search for dark matter.