Hi explorers! My name is Sarah Bouckoms. I studied astrophysics in school and have worked in Antarctica since 2008. I have had some amazing jobs, but I am about to top them all and fulfill a lifelong dream by traveling to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica to help build a telescope!
Have you ever heard of neutrinos? They are mysterious, cosmic particles that are very hard to detect. They travel to Earth from the farthest corners of the cosmos. They have no electrical charge, almost no mass, and can change into different types of neutrinos over time. Oh, and roughly 50 TRILLION of them have traveled through your body while you to read this! Did you feel them? I would guess not, otherwise you would be a neutrino detector, too!
That is what the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is--5,000 individual neutrino detectors drilled into a cubic kilometer section of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The telescope was completed in 2011 and has since captured some amazing interactions of these particles for scientists to study. In fact, it has done so well catching these little ghost particles that we want to make the butterfly net better so we can catch more.
That is where I come in. For the next several months, I will be helping to build a significant upgrade to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The best part is that you can come with me through the magic of virtual exchange! Let's go on an incredible journey together to the bottom of the world--in order to see to the edge of the universe! Register for free at bit.ly/rtwexplore.
