Latest news with #CubicKilometerNeutrinoTelescope
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A Detector at the Bottom of the Sea Found an Extraordinary Signal From the Unseen Universe
Neutrinos are arguably the most enigmatic particles in the universe, but scientists on Earth are getting better at detecting them. In February of 2023, the underwater Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) detected a high-energy neutrino with 30 times more energy than any previously detected neutrino. Amazingly, KM3NeT detected this particle while under construction, using only 20 percent of its photodetectors. Neutrinos lie at the frontier of scientific unknowns about the universe. However, there's a problem—neutrinos also like to keep to themselves. They're the ultimate recluses of the particle physics world, but scientists have developed tools over decades to detect the reactions they can sometimes set off. One of those detectors is known as the Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), which comprises two detector arrays anchored to the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. The Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss (ARCA) array is located off the coast of Sicily, and in the middle of the night on February 13, 2023, the installation recorded an unusual signal—a high-energy muon streaking through the array in just a few microseconds. From the data, scientists determined that the muon contained 120 peta-electron volts (PeV) of energy, and further extrapolated that the instigating neutrino must have contained energies of 220 peta-electron volts—a level that's 30 times higher than any neutrino ever detected. The results of this astounding discovery were published in the journal Nature. 'Neutrinos are the closest thing to nothing that we can imagine,' Paschal Coyle, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) researcher and KM3NeT spokesperson at the time of the detection, said during a press conference earlier this week, 'but they are key to fully understanding the workings of the universe.' Scientists don't directly detect neutrinos, but they can infer things about them by analyzing their interactions with the weak nuclear force (neutrinos also interact with gravity, but the effects are negligible). To give you a sense of how difficult it can be to detect a neutrino, scientists estimate that if 10 trillion neutrinos generated from the Sun pass through the Earth, only one will interact with a particle and produce a detectable reaction. Put another way, you could construct a lead wall five light years in width, and 50 percent of neutrinos could still pass through unscathed. So, not only did it come as a surprise when the ARCA array lit up in February of 2023, it was almost unbelievable that the experiment—which, at that time, had only deployed 10 percent of its photoreceptors—detected something as extraordinary as KM3-230213A (the name of the neutrino event). Two things make this particular muon (and, by extension, the neutrino that created it‚, particularly interesting. The first is its high energy level, which suggests a cosmic origin. The second is the angle of its trajectory. Because it was close to the horizon, it's likely that the neutrino collided with an atom in the deep sea surrounding the detector. 'Neutrinos are one of the most mysterious of elementary particles. They have no electric charge, almost no mass and interact only weakly with matter,' Rosa Coniglione from KM3NeT said in a press statement. 'They are special cosmic messengers, bringing us unique information on the mechanisms involved in the most energetic phenomena and allowing us to explore the farthest reaches of the universe.' Although the researchers can't be sure of the neutrino's origin, it's likely that the particle originated from a cataclysmic event like a gamma-ray burst, accreting supermassive black hole, or supernova explosion. It's also possible that energetic cosmic rays that ferried this neutrino to us interacted with protons found in the cosmic microwave background radiation, creating what's known as a 'cosmogenic neutrino.' KM3NeT is only at the beginning of its journey—this discovery popped up when the device was using only 21 of its planned 230 detection lines. And scientists are hopeful that this high-energy particle will be only the first of many similar discoveries. The project will also get a major assist in the exploration of neutrinos from the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, when it goes online in the coming years. Neutrinos may be the universe's most reclusive particles, but scientists are trying their best to bring some of their anti-social behaviors to light. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Record-Breaking Neutrino From Deep Space Spotted by Undersea Telescope
High-energy particles rain down on Earth constantly, but scientists have now detected a doozy: a neutrino blasting in from deep space with an energy far greater than anything we've seen before. On 13 February 2023, an undersea detector off the coast of Sicily picked up a record-breaking neutrino event. The particle's energy was estimated to be a whopping 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV) – for reference, the previous record-holder is a paltry 10 PeV. Only a handful of astronomical objects are capable of accelerating particles to such extreme energies, such as supernovae or black holes. One possible culprit could be a blazar – a particularly active supermassive black hole that's firing a jet of radiation almost directly at Earth. But given the unprecedented energy level, it could also be the very first cosmogenic neutrino ever detected, meaning it was born from cosmic rays interacting with photons from the background radiation left over from the Big Bang itself. Neutrinos are elementary particles with no electric charge and a mass so tiny it was long thought to be zero. Billions of them are streaming through our bodies every second, but they interact so rarely with matter that we never notice. The flip side is that this makes neutrinos very hard to detect. Doing so requires collecting a huge volume of a medium like water or ice, and watching it with thousands of 'eyes' for telltale flashes of light resulting from a cascade of interactions set off by neutrinos. The record-breaking neutrino was detected by one of two Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) arrays, located 3,450 meters (11,320 feet) below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. There, 378 modules, each containing 31 light-sensitive detectors, keep watch on the surrounding water for the elusive flash of a neutrino. During the 2023 event, over 28,000 photons were detected as particles produced by the neutrino's passage streaked across the whole detector volume. The spray of particles came through almost horizontally, meaning the neutrino responsible for them must have traveled through quite a lot of rock and water in Earth's crust before it hit an atom within view of KM3NeT. The light itself came from another elementary particle called a muon, which are produced during the cascading interactions. This muon was estimated to have an energy of around 120 PeV, which is astonishingly high for these particles. But that's nothing compared to its progenitor particle. So what could launch a neutrino at such an unprecedented level of energy? Since these particles don't interact much with matter, they can travel long distances undisturbed, making it hard to determine exactly where they came from. The team investigated four hypotheses within the region of sky that the neutrino had come from. The source was either something within our galaxy; something outside of it but still within the local Universe; a transient event like a gamma-ray burst; or something from a distant galaxy. Nothing in that direction really fit the first three options, the team found. That left just extragalactic sources, and of those, active supermassive black holes should dominate. Given how incredibly energetic this neutrino was, it would have to be a very active source, like a blazar. Next, the researchers searched that region of sky in multiple wavelengths to identify blazars that could be responsible. A lineup of 12 was identified, but the case is far from closed. "Given the large number of blazars in the sky, none of these associations can be considered compelling so far, and further investigations will be needed," the authors write in a study about the event. Another possibility is what's known as cosmogenic neutrino production. This means the high-energy particles are generated as the result of cosmic rays interacting with the cosmic microwave background – the radiation left over from the Big Bang – or background light between galaxies. If so, this would mark the first known detection of a neutrino produced this way. Further study will be required to solve the mystery one way or another. The research was published in the journal Nature. Alpha Centauri Particles Already Lurk in Our Solar System, Study Suggests Mars Is Rocked by Epic Quakes, And They Don't All Come From Within Scientists Reveal an Ambitious Plan to Detect Dark Matter in Space
USA Today
12-02-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Discovery: Powerful 'ghost particle' with clues about the universe
Discovery: Powerful 'ghost particle' with clues about the universe They're tiny, invisible, and travel across the universe. And trillions of them just flew through your body. What are they? Neutrinos ‒ and scientists Wednesday announced the discovery of the most powerful one ever seen. Neutrinos are ghostly subatomic particles that can travel in a straight line for billions of light-years, passing unhindered through galaxies, stars and anything else in their path. Because they rarely interact with matter and have almost no mass they are often referred to as "ghost particles." The newly discovered neutrino's energy is estimated to be around 30 times higher than any neutrino previously detected. The result suggests that the particle came from beyond our Milky Way, although its precise origin remains to be determined. The new research was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature. What are neutrinos? Difficult to detect, neutrinos are extremely tiny particles and are among the most abundant in the universe. They don't interact much with anything and travel close to the speed of light. 'Neutrinos are one of the most mysterious of elementary particles," explained Rosa Coniglione, researcher at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy, one of the scientists who made the discovery. "They have no electric charge, almost no mass and interact only weakly with matter. They are special cosmic messengers, bringing us unique information on the mechanisms involved in the most energetic phenomena and allowing us to explore the farthest reaches of the universe." Although neutrinos are the second most abundant particle in the universe after photons, their weak interaction with matter makes them very hard to detect and requires enormous detectors, such as the one that made this discovery. This particle was spotted by the Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), a collection of light-detecting glass spheres on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea, on February 13, 2023, according to Nature. How energetic was the neutrino? The neutrino in question was 30 times more energetic than any other neutrino detected to date, a quadrillion times more energetic than particles of light called photons and 10,000 times more energetic than particles made by the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. "The energy of this neutrino is exceptional," added physicist Aart Heijboer of the Nikhef National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands, another of the researchers. Where do neutrinos come from? High-energy neutrinos arise from particle collisions occurring in violent events such as a black hole eating matter or bursts of gamma rays during the explosive deaths of stars. They also can be produced by interactions between high-energy cosmic rays and the universe's background radiation. Scientists say the study of neutrinos is still in its formative stages. "It's basically just trying to understand what is going on in the cosmos," Heijboer said. Contributing: Jessica Bies, The News Journal; Reuters
