Credit: NASA/Scott Battaion
PUEO on the Hunt
The Payload for Ultra-High Energy Observations (PUEO) is a large, balloon-borne experiment to hunt for evidence of mysterious high energy particles from outer space, using the pristine ice of Antarctica as an enormous particle detector. The development of PUEO was led by scientists at the University of Chicago in collaboration with scientists at a dozen other institutions. PUEO shares a name with the only living owl (Asio flammeus sandwichensis) native to Hawaii, where PUEO's predecessor experiment, ANITA, was built. Sharp-eyed as its namesake, PUEO will fly over Antarctica, scanning the ice for one-in-a billion radio signals produced by the impact of cosmic neutrinos (those elusive "ghost particles" produced by the most energetic processes in the Universe) with the Antarctic ice sheet, along with other extreme high-energy cosmic rays. PUEO lifted off from NASA's Antarctic launch facility near the U.S. National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station at 5:56 a.m. NZST, Saturday, Dec. 20 (11:56 am EST, Friday, Dec. 19). PUEO will fly for about a month or more, depending on weather conditions. You can watch the flight of PUEO and be part of its cosmic journey of discovery.
Published: December 22, 2025
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Monday, 22-Dec-2025 11:04:53 EST