IceCube: a telescope made of ice (3D)
About this app
The neutrino detector at the South Pole to rotate: 86 strings with 5160 light sensors 1450 to 2450 metres deep. A muon drags a Cherenkov light cone through the ice, the sensors light up one after another, and the arrival times give the direction. Plus track versus cascade and the Earth as a filter.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
What it is about
IceCube is a neutrino observatory in the ice of the South Pole, completed in December 2010. On 86 strings hang 5160 optical modules between 1450 and 2450 metres deep, watching over a cubic kilometre of clear ice. When a neutrino collides with an atomic nucleus, charged particles are produced that move faster than light travels in ice and emit Cherenkov light. For the concept and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from space, Francis Halzen received the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics.
What the app shows
A rotatable model shows the surface, cables, strings, modules and DeepCore in the middle, plus a depth axis. In a track event a muon drags a cone of light through the ice, the modules light up one after another and can be coloured by arrival time. From this the direction is reconstructed, to about one degree for tracks. A cascade, by contrast, glows almost like a sphere and its direction is only roughly known. The Earth-as-a-filter scenario shows why only neutrinos come from below.
Try it yourself
Turn the ice block, switch between the view from the surface and the side view, and run a track. Turn on the time colours: early hits lie at the start of the track, late ones at the end. Compare a track from below with one from above, and a track with a cascade. The readings panel shows the hit modules, the time since the first hit and the key data of the detector. Grid and light paths are simplified.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the IceCube detector work?
- IceCube does not measure a neutrino directly. When a neutrino hits an atomic nucleus in the ice, a muon, for example, is produced; it flies faster than light travels in ice and emits Cherenkov light. 5160 light sensors on 86 strings measure when and how much light arrives. Direction and energy follow from that.
- Why is IceCube in the ice at the South Pole?
- Neutrinos react so rarely that you need a huge, transparent and dark volume. The South Pole ice is very clear at great depth, almost three kilometres thick and shielded from daylight. A cubic kilometre of it becomes a telescope.
- Why does IceCube look down?
- From above, about 3000 muons per second arrive from air showers; there is roughly one neutrino for every million of them. Only neutrinos come through the Earth; all other particles get stuck. Events from below therefore certainly come from neutrinos.
- What can I try in the IceCube app?
- You turn the detector, run tracks and cascades, colour the hits by arrival time, reconstruct the direction and compare events from below and above. A second scenario shows the Earth as a filter.
Subject: Physics
More from Physics
- Cavendish-Experiment: die Erde wiegen (3D)
- Der eingefrorene Wasserstrahl (3D)
- Double slit — observer on, pattern gone (3D)
- The double-slit experiment
- Real collisions from the LHC (3D)
- Handpan — physics, mechanics and construction (3D)
- Navier-Stokes
- Neutrinos: ghost particles that fly through the Earth
A VisuApp by heyprof: interactive, free in your browser, no sign-up. What is a VisuApp? · All apps