ANITA-II Takes Off

December 22, 2008

A few weeks ago, during Neutrino Week, I mentioned UCLA's David Saltzberg, who is spending his Christmas holiday "on the ice" at the South Pole,  as part of a collaboration to build and deploy a neutrino detector dubbed ANITA-II (the ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Array, Take Two).  It's designed to detect high energy neutrinos produced by collisions between cosmic rays and the photons that comprise the cosmic microwave background radiation that pervades the entire universe. It's a chilly, thankless task for a scientist. Here's David's actual "bedroom" during the experimental set-up:

Brrr! That makes me cold just looking at it. And here's David and one of his students planting sensors in a borehole in the ice (there should be a sign saying "Caution: Scientists At Work" or something near the solar panel):

Alas, the best-laid plans of scientists sometimes go awry, for reasons beyond their control. There were several frustrating weather delays to the launch. But over the weekend, David emailed with excellent news: "I am (very) happy to report that the ANITA-II payload was launched this morning and made a happy ascent to the top of the stratosphere." (For those who want to follow ANITA-II's progress, you can track its path here.) Bon voyage, ANITA-II!

All photos: David Saltzberg, UCLA. Used with permission.