Scientists have detected the highest-energy “Ghost Particle” Ever Seen. The particle, a type of neutrino, Arrived at Earth at Nearly The Speed of Light and With 30 Times the energy of the previous most energetic neutrino ever glimpsed. This is the first solid evidence that neutrinos with such high energys can be produced in the universe.
This particle's high-energy natural indicates that the neutrino originates from outside the milky way, and thought the ghost particular particular! The suspects are all “Blazars,” Or the Energetic Cores of “Active Galatic Nuclei” (Agn) That Are Powered by Feeding Supermasive Black Holes. Blazars are types of Quasars that stand out of the beams of high-energy particles and light they Blast out are pointed directly at earth.
Another Possibility, however, is that high-energy neutrino was created when an ultramassive cosmic ray particle Slammed Into Particles of Light, Or “PHOTONS,” PHOTONS, “Left in the Universe Somer D just after the big bang.
The neutrino was spotted via the detection of a single muon by the kilometer cubic neutrino telescope (KM3NET), Located 11,300 Feet (3,450 Meters) Beneath the Waves of the Medeeranean SEA, On FEB. 13, 2023. During the event, designated km3-230213a, the Muon Crossed The Entre KM3NET Detector and Lit Up One-Third of the Deep Sea Instrument's Thousands of ACAPENDS of ACAP
“This neutrino is very likely of cosmic origin, and its energy is soch that it's in a completely unexplred region of energy,” Paschal cole of the freench national centers for self e hand on tuesday (Feb. 11). “History shows us that whenever you do open a new 'energy window,' You Never Really Know What you going to find. It's completely Unexplred.
“IT's Finding Unexpected Things which Drive Many of Us,” Coyle Added.
Catching high energy cosmic ghosts
Neutrinos are often Nicknamed “Ghost Particles” Because The Lack A Charge and Have a Pretty Non-Existent Mass. In Fact, About 100 Trillion Neutrinos Can Pass Through Your Body Every Second without you noticing a thing.
Thus, Thought Neutrinos Reported Most Abundant Particle in the Universe after Particles of Light, Photons, Thei Are Notoroughly Dificly to Detect and Require Deeep ASE, Deep under the Sea.
“Neutrinos are one of the most mysterious of elementary particles,” Rosa coniglione, km3net team member from the istituto nazionale di fisica nucleare in Italy, Said Dining Conferencie. “They have no electric charge, almost no mass, and interact only weakly with matter. Lowing us to explore the fartest reactions of the universe. “
Even thought the km3net detected a flash of light from an Electron-Like Muon-Not A Neutrino-It was the Qualities of this Elementary Particle That Indicated It Haded When Annusualaly Struck Another Particle.
“There are many moons going through the detector comman, produced in the earth's atmosphere, and they are not interesting. Time of the detection, aart heijboer of Nikhef National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands, SAID at the Press Conference. “It turns out that this particle was [oriented] Horizontally. To produce a horizontal muon, there must have been a neutrino trust these are the only particles that can travel the required Amount of Material, 87 Miles [140 kilometers] of Rock and Water to Produce this Horizontal Particle in the Detector. “
The team was able to determine the energy of the neutrino from the amount of light registered by the detector. They found that energy was 220 Million billion electron volts, which heijboer explained is 30,000 times the energy that Earth's Largest Particle Accleator, The Large method of AchiaVing.
For Context, Coyle Explained that to Accelerate a Particle to such Energies, The LHC would have to be expanded from its current lenth of 17 miles (27 kilometers) to Around 25,000 Miles (40,000 kilometers). That's the circumference of the earth.
“It would require having a global lhc accessory all Around the World to Reach Such An Energy,” Coyle Said.
So, what kind of natural cosmic particle Accelerator could have launched a neutrino with such energy? Thought the Researchers Don'T Yet Have a CONCLUSIVE Answer, they suspect
Supermassive Black Holes as Cosmic Particle Accelerators
The high-energy university is flooded with a variety of vioilent and powerful events, from the explosive supernova deths of massive stars to gamma-ray bursts, which are brief explings of high-exclusions of higher. Thought they often last for fractions of a second, gamma-ray bursts can pump out more energy than the sun will radiate in its entry lifetime.
All of these events could act as particle accelerators, but the prime suspects in this case are supermassive black holes with masses with millions or billions of time that of the sun. When these supermassive Black Holes are surrounded by Vast Amounts of Matter in Agns, Thei Are Know As “Quasars,” Powering Vast Jets of Matter That Can Stretch For Hundreds of Hundreds of Light-Andars. When these jets point right at us, the quasar is referred to as a “Blazar.”
The jets emitted in blazar flare events These jets also consistal of electromagnetic radiation from low-energy radio waves to extrame high-energy gamma rays. When Such Particles Strike Others in the Galaxy of Origin, they send showers of high-energy neutrinos raining through the cosmos.
Coniglione explained during the press conference that, by measuring the direction of the part, the reserves were abled to trave it back to the border of the milky way.
With no sources to explain the high-energy ghost parties traceable in our galaxy, the team found 12 interesting sources: all blazars beyond the boundaries of the boundaries of the boundaries of the boundaries of the boundaries of the boundaries One of that 12 could be the origin point of this newly discovered part.
There is another suspect, however.
The Researchers Think This High-Energy Neutrino could have been generated when an ultra-hight energy cosmic ray, most likely a proton, struruck a photo in the Cosmic Microve Background (camb). This cosmic fossil represents the first light capable of freely traveling through the cosmos after electrons bonded with protons, allowing photos to travel freely without
An interaction between a cosmic ray and the CMB would have created a shower of high-energy neutrinos. If that is the case, this would be the first detection of a so-called “cosmogenic neutrino.” Scientists are such neutrinos must exist, even thought they have remind frustrated frustratingly eluse.
The potential detection of a cosmogenic neutrino is exciting, these high-energy particles parties Cold Open up a new form of astronomy. This would bolster the unification of “traditional astronomy” that taps into electromagnetic radiation and gravitational wave astronomy that focuses on tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime. The third Arm of these innovative ways of investigating the cosmos is referred to as multi-loveer astronomy, and neutrino-spoiled versions of this would experts it get extra new-energy domains.
At the moment, with one Single Detection, The Team Can't Distinguish Whats This High-Energy Neutrino Came from a Cosmic Particle Accelerator Like a Blazar or if it originate
However, the fact that KM3NET made this first-of-weTS-Kind Historic Detection While Still under Construction Should offer some confidence that this cosmic mystery could only be solved.
“In the next year, KM3NET will deliver more and more data with improved angular resolution,” Coniglione said. “In the middle future, we will have a more refined pointing of this event and probally a more firm conclusion on the origin of this event.”
The team's research was published on Wednsday (Feb. 12) in the journey.
