Latest news with #AntarcticImpulsiveTransientAntenna
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
Strange radio waves detected beneath Antarctica's ice, scientists still searching for the source
A team of researchers working in Antarctica has detected unusual radio signals emerging from deep beneath the ice. These waves were picked up during an experiment using the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a NASA-funded project that searches for high-energy particles from space. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The discovery was unexpected as the signals appeared to be coming from below the surface rather than from space. Scientists say the waves are unlikely to be caused by known particles like neutrinos and have yet to determine exactly what is producing them. Radio waves found during neutrino search in Antarctica The ANITA experiment was designed to study high-energy neutrinos using a balloon that carried radio instruments into the stratosphere. Antarctica was chosen as the site due to its isolation and low interference from other radio sources. While searching for neutrinos researchers came across signals coming from around 30 degrees below the ice surface. These signals were unexpected because they would have had to pass through thousands of kilometres of rock which should have absorbed them completely. Neutrinos ruled out as the cause Stephanie Wissel, an astrophysicist at Penn State University and part of the ANITA team, explained that the signals were not consistent with neutrinos. Neutrinos are incredibly difficult to detect and rarely interact with matter. Although they can travel great distances through solid rock the angles and nature of the signals did not match what scientists expect from neutrino interactions. The team also cross-checked their findings with data from two other experiments and found no matches confirming that these were not neutrino events. Theories and unanswered questions around the mystery Since neutrinos were ruled out scientists are now considering other explanations. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Some have proposed the signals could be related to dark matter or unknown radio wave behaviour around the ice and the horizon. However none of these theories have been confirmed. Wissel said that while they have explored several ideas none fully explain what was detected. She added that more experiments and data will be needed to understand what is happening under the Antarctic ice. Search continues for the mysterious source The instruments used in the experiment were lifted about 40 kilometres into the sky to capture faint radio emissions. While this approach allows for a broad view of signals entering Earth from space it also reveals unexpected activity from below. As scientists continue to review the data and prepare for future missions they hope to uncover more about the nature of these strange signals. For now the source of the radio waves remains a mystery.
New York Post
a day ago
- Science
- New York Post
Scientists detect mysterious radio waves coming from beneath Antarctica's ice
A group of researchers in Antarctica have found strange radio waves coming from below the ice. According to the results published in the Physical Review Letters, the mysterious radio waves were discovered by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). During this experiment, the researchers analyzed signals traveling to Earth using a variety of instruments. Using balloons to send the instruments up high into the atmosphere, the goal was to gain new understandings of cosmic events throughout the universe. According to the release, the reason Antarctica was the site of these experiments was due to little to no interference from other radio waves. However, the researchers found radio waves transmitting from under the ice instead. Stephanie Wissel, associate professor of physics, astronomy and astrophysics from Penn State, and one of the researchers discussed in a release by the college, revealed they discovered the radio waves while searching for a particle known as neutrinos. 'The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,' Wissel said in the release. 3 An Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) discovered the mysterious radio waves. Stephanie Wissel/ Penn State Wissel went on to explain that the radio waves should have been undetectable. The waves would have had to go through thousands of kilometers of rock and would have been absorbed into the rocks. She also said in the release that the team of researchers had no answer about how these neutrinos were detected. According to Wissel, neutrinos are important to the understanding of the universe due to emitted by high-energy sources and are typically hard to detect. 3 Researchers used balloons to analyze signals traveling to Earth using a variety of instruments during the experiment. Stephanie Wissel/ Penn State Wissel said that you could have a billion neutrinos passing through you at any moment but they don't interact with you. 'So, this is the double-edged sword problem. If we detect them, it means they have traveled all this way without interacting with anything else. We could be detecting a neutrino coming from the edge of the observable universe,' Wissel said. Once discovered, these particles can reveal data and information about cosmic events that even the most powerful telescopes can not. 3 Stephanie Wissel revealed they discovered the radio waves while searching for a particle known as neutrinos. Gabi – According to Wissel, the balloon is sent up 40 kilometers or 29 miles above the ice to catch emissions signals. However, the researchers cross-referenced their findings with two other experiments and found that their results did not match up. This means that what they found were not neutrinos but something else entirely. Wissel said that there have been some theories that this could be dark matter, but it can't be confirmed and remains a mystery. 'My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effects occur near ice and also near the horizon that I don't fully understand, but we certainly explored several of those, and we haven't been able to find any of those yet either,' Wissel said.
