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

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

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

Fermilab's ICARUS experiment is searching for hypothetical sterile neutrinos

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Particle accelerators detect subatomic particles using millions of sensors

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

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of dark energy, which has driven the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Fritz Zwicky predicted the existence of dark matter and neutron stars

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.

View the winners of the 2025 Global Physics Photowalk contest

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.

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.

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

By measuring them in hot-air balloons during a partial solar eclipse and at night, Victor Hess discovered cosmic rays and concluded they came from beyond the solar system.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Cosmogenic nuclide dating reveals how long a surface has been exposed to air by measuring the abundance of rare isotopes produced when cosmic rays interact with minerals.

In 2026, the European-Chinese Smile mission captured the full ring of the Northern Lights in ultraviolet light for the first time in almost two decades.

At the CERN Control Center, where the Large Hadron Collider and connected accelerators are managed, champagne bottles from parties commemorating major milestones, such as the first collisions or a new record energy, are collected.

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.

Explaining why solving the solar neutrino problem revealed that neutrinos could transform

The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider will provide a tenfold increase in particle collisions compared with the initial LHC infrastructure by increasing the number of ions in collision bundles and by concentrating the ion beams.

View a timeline of particle discoveries through the Higgs boson in 2012

The first circular particle accelerator was narrower than the average cereal bowl

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.

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.

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.

Through 2038, the Large Hadron Collider research program is expected to generate societal benefits of €25.6B, or €3.3B more than operating costs and investments.

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

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.

The next generation of gravitational wave detectors may include a triangular design

Cosmic rays are thought to be accelerated to near the speed of light by repeatedly bouncing across shockwaves produced by high-energy cosmic events, such as supernovae.

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.

Scientists have tested atmospheric models by firing rockets into the aurora borealis

The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who was not awarded the corresponding Nobel Prize

Delays in the decay of unstable particles provide evidence for time dilation

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