Analysis of Neutrino That Crashed Into Antarctica Sheds Light on Origin of Cosmic Rays

Scientists believe that astrophysical neutrino and cosmic rays are connected, so locating neutrino's origin will help in finding cosmic rays' history.

By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 15 July 2022 17:08 IST

Analysis of Neutrino That Crashed Into Antarctica Sheds Light on Origin of Cosmic Rays

Photo Credit: Clemson University/ Benjamin Amend

Researchers have scanned the largest available neutrino data set TXS 0506+056

Highlights

These parties are considered so evasive that they interact with anything
Neutrinos are small particles messengers spawning new field of astronomy
A neutrino was detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in 2017

Cosmic rays are atom fragments that carry an enormous amount of energy and often affect the satellites when they enter our atmosphere. The origin of this strange phenomenon has remained elusive for scientists for over a century. Now, researchers, in a new study, have claimed of finding some clues that can shed light on the factories behind these cosmic rays.

In a new study, published in Science, researchers have detected a cosmic ray offshoot called a neutrino or ghost particles. These parties are considered so evasive that they interact with anything but as they travel, they don't come in contact with the atoms.

Scientists believe that astrophysical neutrino and cosmic rays are connected, hence locating neutrino's origin would help in understanding where cosmic rays come from. Neutrinos are like small particles messengers that have spawned a new field of astronomy called multi-messenger astronomy.

For the study, researchers have scanned the largest available neutrino data set collected from a science base named IceCube Neutrino Observatory, located within the South Pole. A neutrino was detected by the observatory in 2017, which was later traced to a blazar called TXS 0506+056.

Puzzled over how the neutrino is produced, researchers cross-checked the IceCube's findings with the PeVatron blazers catalog. The authors, through the study, were able to determine the link between the neutrinos and blazars. “We had a hint back then (in 2017), and now we have evidence," said Marco Ajello, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University and author of the study.

Explaining the findings, co-author Sara Buson from Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Germany said, "The results provide, for the first time, incontrovertible observational evidence that the sub-sample of PeVatron blazars are extragalactic neutrino sources and thus, cosmic ray accelerators.”

Now, researchers hope that while these findings were revealed by scanning only the most promising sets of the IceCube neutrino data, digging deeper would provide more discoveries in future.

What are the best tablets? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.