The forbidding Antarctic ice cap has become a new Mecca for astronomers looking to take advantage of the continent's many months of darkness and pristine skies. Yet perhaps the most revolutionary astronomy project now under way at the South Pole plans to make use not of its clear views but its surprisingly clear ice.

For four years, an international team of scientists has been drilling holes up to 2 kilometers deep into the ice in order to build Amanda, the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array. By spring, the principal investigators say, they should obtain their first indication of whether the premise behind their project is valid: that it is possible to do astronomy based not on light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation but on neutrinos.

If they are right, the repercussions would be enormous. Neutrino astronomy could give scientists a view straight to the heart of some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, including quasars and active galactic nuclei (distant galaxies believed to be powered by massive black holes), as well as the sources of mysterious gamma ray bursts and perhaps even the universe's origin in the Big Bang.

What makes neutrinos such a good subject for astronomy is that unlike visible light or other forms of radiation they zip through the universe virtually unimpeded. Produced as a byproduct of the nuclear fusion that occurs at the heart of every star, they have no electric charge and-as far as anyone can tell so far-no mass. So if astronomers could detect neutrinos and measure their energy levels they could learn more about what goes on in those stars.