- 4162 - SEEING with NEUTRINOS? Scientists have revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos. Neutrinos are invisible 'ghost particles' which exist in great quantities but normally pass straight through Earth undetected. The neutrino-based image of the Milky Way is the first of its kind. It is a galactic portrait made with particles of matter rather than electromagnetic energy.
------------------------- 4162 - SEEING with NEUTRINOS?
- From visible
starlight to radio waves, the Milky Way galaxy has long been observed through
the various frequencies of electromagnetic radiation it emits. Scientists have
now revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the
galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos which exist in great quantities but
normally pass straight through Earth undetected.
-
- The breakthrough
was achieved by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole in
Antarctica. The immense observatory detects the subtle signs of high-energy
neutrinos from space by using thousands of networked sensors buried deep within
a cubic kilometer of clear, pristine ice.
-
- This is a point in
human history for astreonomers to “see”
our galaxy in anything other than light.
As is so often the case, significant breakthroughs in science are
enabled by advances in technology. The capabilities provided by the highly
sensitive IceCube detector, coupled with new data analysis tools, have given us
an entirely new view of our galaxy.
-
- As these
capabilities continue to be refined, we can look forward to watching this
picture emerge with ever-increasing resolution, potentially revealing hidden
features of our galaxy never before seen by humanity.
-
- In neutrinos, the
universe outshines the nearby sources in our own galaxy. The even more ambitious goal is determining
where they came from. When neutrinos happen to interact with the ice beneath
IceCube, those rare encounters produce faint patterns of light, which IceCube
can detect.
-
- Some patterns of
light are highly directional and point clearly to a particular area of the sky,
allowing researchers to determine the source of the neutrinos. Such
interactions were the basis for the IceCube Collaboration's 2022 discovery of
neutrinos that came from another galaxy 47 million light-years away.
-
- Other interactions
are far less directional and produce cascading "fuzz balls of light"
in the clear ice, A machine-learning
algorithm was developec that compared the relative position, size and energy of
more than 60,000 such neutrino-generated cascades of light recorded by IceCube
over 10 years.
-
- When the algorithm
was fed the real IceCube-provided data what emerged was a picture showing
bright spots corresponding to locations in the Milky Way that were suspected to
emit neutrinos. Those locations were in places where observed gamma rays were
thought to be the byproducts of collisions between cosmic rays and interstellar
gas, which should also produce neutrinos.
-
- Over many decades,
scientists have revealed countless astronomical discoveries by expanding the
methods used to observe the universe. Once-revolutionary advances such as radio
astronomy and infrared astronomy have been joined by a new class of
observational techniques using phenomena such as gravitational waves and now,
neutrinos.
-
- The neutrino-based
image of the Milky Way is yet another step in that lineage of discovery. Neutrino astronomy will be honed like the
methods that preceded it, until it too can reveal previously unknown aspects of
the universe.
-
September 18, 2023 4162
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