IceCube is a neutrino detector housed in a cubic kilometer of ice beneath the Antarctic surface.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has detected high-energy cosmic neutrinos since 2013 using an array of 5,160 sensors enclosed in Antarctic ice.

Trillions of neutrinos travel through your body every second without leaving a trace.

Fermilab's ICARUS experiment is searching for hypothetical sterile neutrinos

Scientists can map Earth's shape and structure by measuring the ratios of certain particles arriving from different directions in space, as these ratios change with the density of the material particles travel through.

Learn how to build your own cloud chamber to detect cosmic rays—particles from space that move near the speed of light—at home.

Antimatter was discovered by examining debris from collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy matter particles from space.

Each year, the Large Hadron Collider undergoes a winter shutdown—when electricity costs are highest—and bringing it back online requires weeks of tests, including some involving high-energy particles from outer space.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest cryogenic system, which uses 10,000 metric tons of liquid nitrogen and 120 metric tons of helium to cool 36,000 metric tons of magnets to temperatures colder than outer space.

Unlike the other major detectors at the Large Hadron Collider, the Compact Muon Solenoid—one of two general-purpose detectors—was built above ground and then lowered underground in sections for reassembly.

As of 2025, LUX-ZEPLIN is the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment, which is designed to indirectly detect a potential candidate for the invisible form of matter.

A beam of neutrinos can be created by firing a beam of high-energy protons at a target to produce unstable particles that decay into neutrinos.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

At CERN's Antimatter Factory, researchers create and guide antiprotons and antielectrons together to form antihydrogen, and all these antiparticles are analyzed to help scientists study the behavior of antimatter.

Scientists have determined the properties of cosmic rays by analyzing their trajectories in bubble chambers—containers filled with a vapor that clings to charged particles.

In 2017, a hidden chamber was found in the Great Pyramid of Giza by measuring particles created in the collisions between cosmic rays and atmospheric particles.

Cosmic rays are evidence of incredibly powerful astronomical events—solar cosmic rays provide information about eruptions and flares on the sun's surface, while galactic cosmic rays shed light on dying stars.

Learn about solar neutrinos—about 70 billion of which pass through your thumbnail every second

Cosmic rays can be detected using cloud chambers—containers where alcohol vapor condenses around trails of ions created by these high-speed particles from space.

Particle accelerators detect subatomic particles using millions of sensors

CERN—the European Organization for Nuclear Research—is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, with the Large Hadron Collider serving as its largest tool.

After photons—particles of light—neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe.

Take a 360-degree tour of ATLAS, one of two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider and the largest particle detector by volume ever built. (VR device-compatible)

Watch how the machine at the heart of NASA's Cold Atom Lab produces atoms near absolute zero—the coldest theoretical temperature in the universe—for experiments involving quantum phenomena.

In 1997, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory identified 'positron geysers'—fountains of antimatter particles—emerging from near the center of the Milky Way.

Search for psychrotolerant and psychrophilic microorganisms found in Antarctica

Particle detection has evolved from cloud and bubble chambers to digital 3D displays

The British Antarctic Survey created a map of what Antarctica would look like if it lost all 27 million cubic kilometers (6.5 million cubic miles) of its ice—enough to fill almost 6,500 Grand Canyons.

There may be 74,963 kinds of ice, resulting from water molecules rearranging themselves

Webb's sunshield enables extreme cooling for precision space observation

Learn about five of the largest particle accelerators on Earth, which, as of 2026, are led by the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Within ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment—at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created quark-gluon plasma—an exotic form of matter present in the moments after the Big Bang.

As of 2026, 75 of the 86 particles discovered by the Large Hadron Collider have been found by the LHCb experiment—a detector that explores the decay of particles made of beauty and charm quarks.

Earth's magnetic field, which deflects charged particles, helps protect us from cosmic rays, but the sensitivity of these particles to magnetic fields also makes it difficult for astronomers to determine their sources.

In 2025, UK scientists began studying climate data from a 1.5-million-year-old ice core

The Ocean Observatories Initiative aims to provide freely accessible, real-time ocean data for up to 30 years to help scientists identify and analyze short- and long-term ocean processes.

The total length of superconducting wire at the Large Hadron Collider spans about 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles)—enough to wrap around the equator 6.2 times.

The Southern Ocean features the Antarctic Circumpolar Current—the largest ocean current on Earth—which encircles Antarctica and creates a unique biogeographical zone.

Throughout its 10-year mission to create a time-lapse of the universe, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will generate 500 petabytes of data by taking an ultrawide, ultra-high definition image every 34 seconds.

The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid—a distributed system of 2 billion gigabytes of storage across over 40 countries—manages data produced by the Large Hadron Collider.

Track the current size of the Antarctic ozone hole with NASA's real-time data

In 2026, researchers successfully transported antimatter in a truck using a portable trap that employed electromagnetic fields to hold 92 antiprotons.

The European Space Agency's Euclid mission is designed to create a 3D map of the large-scale structure of the universe out to 10 billion light-years, helping reveal the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Superconducting qubits have become foundational to today’s quantum computing efforts

Fish in polar waters contain proteins in their blood that act as antifreeze, and some manufacturers have used lab-grown versions of these proteins to help keep ice cream smooth.

Research shows that cosmic rays may trigger the cascade of displaced electrons needed to produce lightning, which is also enabled by pointed ice crystals that create strong electric fields.

View the winners of the 2025 Global Physics Photowalk contest

Ice found in another star system for the first time

As seen in the dark region of the Horsehead Nebula, clouds of space dust can block some forms of light from reaching telescopes, impairing observations and data collection.

Particles produced in cosmic-ray showers that would normally decay long before reaching Earth's surface are observed by ground-based detectors, as predicted by special relativity.

Watch an animated visualization of how the Large Hadron Collider works, including how particles are accelerated through a series of machines and how collision data is collected and distributed worldwide.