The IceCube project at the South Pole melted 86 holes over 1.5 miles deep in the Antarctic icecap to construct an enormous astronomical observatory. The experiment recently discovered a flux of neutrinos reaching us from the cosmos, with energies more than a million times those of neutrinos produced at accelerator laboratories. These cosmic neutrinos are astronomical messengers coming from some of the most violent processes in the universe—events associated with starbursts, giant black holes gobbling up stars in the hearts of quasars, and gamma-ray bursts, the biggest explosions since the Big Bang.
Francis Halzen, principal investigator of IceCube, will discuss the IceCube telescope and highlight the discovery that some high-energy neutrinos originate from sources powered by rotating supermassive black holes.
For more info about this talk and the Wisconsin Science Festival visit their website.