At the South Pole, astrophysicists drill 1.5 miles into the ice to hunt for neutrinos, the subatomic particles that are a byproduct of violent cosmic events. Because neutrinos are tiny and electrically neutral, they can travel across the universe without interference, bringing with them information about their distant astrophysical sources.

Researchers from the IceCube project will place a string of Digital Optical Modules into this hole, which can detect the faint signal produced on the rare occasion when a neutrino collides directly with the nucleus of an atom in a molecule of ice.