The world's most powerful neutrino telescope, IceCube, uses Antarctic ice as the detector volume, with electronic equipment sunk throughout a cubic kilometer of ice -- enough water to fill a million swimming pools -- to detect signals from neutrinos interacting with the ice.

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This, combined with a new digital camera developed for it by Mitsubishi Electric, will make it the most powerful ground-based optical telescope around.

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In 1999, it deployed the powerful Chandra X-ray space telescope, with the first female commander at the helm, Eileen Collins.

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