IceCube is built on decades of research into tiny ‘ghost particles’ – but it was the first to find neutrinos coming from deep space

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory sits on tons of clear ice at the South Pole, allowing scientists to detect neutrino interactions. Cmichel67/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

All visible matter in the universe – stars, planets, you, me – is made up of some combination of 12 fundamental particles. The lightest and most abundant of these are neutrinos. They are also the least visible. With every tick of the clock, more than 100 billion of these “little neutral ones” stealthily zip through you, with energies so low that they leave no trace of their passage.

Belgian physicist Francis Halzen received the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Oct. 6, 2026. Atila Altuntas/Anadolu via Getty Images