Roughly a year from now, scientists at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory will begin deploying more than 400 multi-photomultiplier digital optical modules, or mDOMS, deep inside a 1 billion-ton block of ice at the South Pole as part of the IceCube Upgrade — a feat powered in part by the work of a team from Michigan State University.

The mDOMs are sensors that look like black and gold soccer balls from the future, and their job is to detect elusive neutrinos, which are invisible, nearly massless subatomic particles that have helped scientists understand some of the most fundamental questions in physics. This upgrade will bring neutrinos into sharper focus.

The MSU IceCube group is essential to the project. Of the 400-plus mDOMs being deployed — other units and calibration devices are also part of the upgrade — 205 of them will be manufactured and tested by a team of undergraduates, graduate students, engineers and postdoctoral students from MSU. Once their work is done, these sensors will be shipped nearly 9,160 miles from East Lansing to the South Pole.