I read the article “An Icy Observatory Detects Neutrinos From Far, Far Away” by Kenneth Chang. This ‘Icy Observatory’ refers to the observatory that was established in 2010 called IceCube Neutrino Observatory whose purpose was to look for and discover neutrinos. Neutrinos are extremely small sub atomic particles which can pass through anything with mass with relative ease. The last report of neutrinos was 1987 which came from a supernova explosion 165,000 light-years away. The IceCube has been established with more than 5000 sensors. These sensors were frozen across a cubic kilometer (about one quarter cubic mile). Their purpose is to look for flashes of blue light which “are given off by the cascades of debris generated by a neutrino.” Neutrinos are hard to detect because they rarely interact and affect the universe. For example every second trillions of neutrinos pass through every person on Earth. Neutrinos are discovered once in a while when a neutrino does collide with something, setting off a cascade of electrons and other subatomic debris. Some scientists believe that some of the neutrinos might be coming from our own galaxy not just from solar systems far away.

This discovery of new neutrinos is important for astronomers. Francis Halzen, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin who is the lead investigator for the project said, “This gives us a new way to do astronomy.” The high energy neutrinos will allow astronomers to observe the universe through a new spectrum. Before observations were made by gathering photos, particles of light, visible light, and X-rays and Gamma rays. Another supernova like the one in 1987 would drastically help the understanding of neutrinos due to the vast amount that are released after a cosmic explosion.

Overall this was a well written article. The article was at time difficult to understand and I had to do some more research on neutrinos to completely understand what the article was talking about. However the author was able to simplify some aspects which greatly helped in understanding this topic of these subatomic particles. I enjoyed reading and learning about neutrinos and hope they lead to more understanding about the universe in the future. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/science/space/icy-observatory-detects-neutrinos-from-outside-our-solar-system.html?ref=science&_r=0