Share to ClassroomHalzen Wins Nobel for Ghost Ice
Francis Halzen took the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize is for IceCube, a project that catches ghost particles from space. A Swedish science group announced it in Stockholm on 6 October 2026. Halzen was born in Belgium. He is 82 and is now a United States citizen. His job is at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. The same university leads IceCube at the South Pole.
Neutrinos are tiny particles from stars. Every second, trillions of them go through the human body. Scientists call them ghost particles because they rarely hit anything. They have no electric charge, so they move straight. Halzen described the South Pole plan in 1988. IceCube is a huge block of clear ice with thousands of light sensors inside it. When a neutrino hits a nucleus, the ice makes a blue light. The light's shape and the time it arrives show the direction.
Halzen was surprised. Speaking by phone from Italy, he said the news felt strange. He is writing a proposal and wants the prize to help. Few people, including Halzen, thought the plan would work. The prize is worth about 1.2 million dollars. Neutrinos show how exploding stars and space around giant places where light can not leave push particles fast. A science director in London said IceCube shows events that ordinary telescopes can not see.
