Latest news with #PaschalCoyle
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
Scientists detect highest-energy ghost particle ever seen — where did it come from?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. 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 energies can be produced in the particle's high-energy nature indicates that the neutrino originates from outside the Milky Way, and though the ghost particle's source is yet to be determined, the team has 12 suspects in mind. The suspects are all "blazars," or the energetic cores of "active galactic nuclei" (AGN) that are powered by feeding supermassive black holes. Blazars are types of quasars that stand out because the beams of high-energy particles and light they blast out are pointed directly at Earth. Another possibility, however, is that the high-energy neutrino was created when an ultramassive cosmic ray particle slammed into particles of light, or "photons," left in the universe after some event that occurred 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 Mediterranean Sea, on Feb. 13, 2023. During the event, designated KM3-230213A, the muon crossed the entire KM3NeT detector and lit up one-third of the deep sea instrument's thousands of active sensors. "This neutrino is very likely of cosmic origin, and its energy is such that it's in a completely unexplored region of energy," Paschal Coyle of the French National Centre for Scientific Research said in a press conference held on Tuesday (Feb. 11). "History shows us that whenever you do open a new 'energy window,' you never really know what you're going to find. It's completely unexplored. "It's finding unexpected things which drive many of us," Coyle added. Neutrinos are often nicknamed "ghost particles" because they 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, though neutrinos represent the second most abundant particle in the universe after particles of light, photons, they are notoriously difficult to detect and require detectors to go deep underground, or, in this case, 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 during the press conference. "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.' Even though 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 had been created when an unusually high-energy neutrino struck another particle. "There are many muons going through the detector coming from above, produced in the Earth's atmosphere, and they are not interesting. We detected roughly 110 million of them in 2023," the experiment's physics coordinator at the 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 because these are the only particles that can traverse 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 accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is capable of achieving. For context, Coyle explained that to accelerate a particle to such energies, the LHC would have to be expanded from its current length 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 accelerator all around the world to reach such an energy," Coyle what kind of natural cosmic particle accelerator could have launched a neutrino with such energy? Though the researchers don't yet have a conclusive answer, they suspect that the solution lies at the hearts of AGNs. The high-energy universe is flooded with a variety of violent and powerful events, from the explosive supernova deaths of massive stars to gamma-ray bursts, which are brief explosions of high-energy light. Though they often last for fractions of a second, gamma-ray bursts can pump out more energy than the sun will radiate in its entire lifetime. All of these events could act as particle accelerators, but the prime suspects in this case are supermassive black holes with masses millions or billions of times that of the sun. When these supermassive black holes are surrounded by vast amounts of matter in AGNs, they are known as "quasars," powering vast jets of matter that can stretch for hundreds of light-years. When these jets point right at us, the quasar is referred to as a "blazar." The jets emitted in blazar flare events are composed of high-energy particles known as cosmic rays that can extend well beyond the limits of the galaxies housing the black hole that created them. These jets also consist of electromagnetic radiation ranging from low-energy radio waves to extreme high-energy gamma rays. When such particles strike others in the galaxy of origin, they send showers of high-energy neutrinos raining through the explained during the press conference that, by measuring the direction of the particle, the researchers were able to trace it back to the border of the Milky no sources to explain the high-energy ghost particle traceable in our galaxy, the team found 12 interesting sources: all blazars beyond the boundaries of the Milky Way. One of those 12 could be the origin point of this newly discovered particle. There is another suspect, however. The researchers think this high-energy neutrino could have been generated when an ultra-high energy cosmic ray, most likely a proton, struck a photon in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This cosmic fossil represents the first light capable of freely traveling through the cosmos after electrons bonded with protons, allowing photons to travel freely without being endlessly scattered. 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 sure such neutrinos must exist, even though they have remained frustratingly elusive. The potential detection of a cosmogenic neutrino is exciting because these high-energy particles could 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-messenger astronomy, and neutrino-based versions of this would expand it into new high-energy domains. Related Stories: — A new approach might help scientists see inside a neutron star — City-size neutron stars may actually be bigger than we thought — The heaviest neutron star ever observed is shredding its companion At the moment, with one single detection, the team can't distinguish whether this high-energy neutrino came from a cosmic particle accelerator like a blazar or if it originated in a cosmic ray/CMB collision. However, the fact that KM3NeT made this first-of-its-kind historic detection while still under construction should offer some confidence that this cosmic mystery could soon be solved. "In the next year, KM3NeT will deliver more and more data with improved angular resolution," Coniglione said. "In the near future, we will have a more refined pointing of this event and probably a more firm conclusion on the origin of this event." The team's research was published on Wednesday (Feb. 12) in the journal Nature.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
High-energy cosmic neutrino detected under Mediterranean Sea
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - Using an observatory under construction deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily, scientists have detected a ghostly subatomic particle called a neutrino boasting record-breaking energy in another important step toward understanding some of the universe's most cataclysmic events. The researchers, part of the KM3NeT (Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope) Collaboration, believe the neutrino came from beyond the Milky Way galaxy. They identified 12 supermassive black holes actively guzzling surrounding matter at the center of distant galaxies as possible origination points, though the neutrino may have arisen from some other source. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. KM3NeT comprises two large neutrino detectors at the bottom of the Mediterranean. One called ARCA - 3,450 meters (2.1 miles) deep near Sicily - is designed to find high-energy neutrinos. One called ORCA - 2,450 meters (1.5 miles) deep near Provence, France - is designed to detect low-energy neutrinos. The newly described "ultra-high energy" neutrino, detected by ARCA in February 2023, was measured at about 120 quadrillion electronvolts, a unit of energy. It 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. "It's in a completely unexplored region of energy," said physicist Paschal Coyle of the Marseille Particle Physics Centre (CPPM) in France, one of the leaders of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. "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. Neutrinos offer scientists a different way to study the cosmos, not based on electromagnetic radiation - light. Many aspects of the universe are indecipherable using light alone. Neutrinos are electrically neutral, undisturbed by even the strongest magnetic field, and rarely interact with matter. As neutrinos travel through space, they pass unimpeded through matter - stars, planets or anything else. That makes them "cosmic messengers" because scientists can trace them back to their source, either within the Milky Way or across galaxies, and thus learn about some of the most energetic processes in the cosmos. "Neutrinos are ghost particles. They travel through walls, all the way through the Earth, and all the way from the edge of the universe," Coyle said. "Neutrinos have zero charge, zero size, almost zero mass and almost zero interaction. They are the closest thing to nothing one can imagine, but nevertheless they are key to fully understanding the universe." Other high-energy cosmic messengers zipping through space are not as reliable. For instance, the path of cosmic rays gets bent by magnetic fields, so they cannot be traced back to their place of origination. Detecting neutrinos is not simple, requiring large observatories located deep underwater or in ice. These mediums offer an expansive and transparent volume where a passing neutrino may interact with a particle, producing a flash of light called Cherenkov radiation. The researchers concluded that the one spotted at ARCA - which was a type of neutrino called a muon - was of cosmic origin based on its horizontal trajectory and the fact that it had traversed through about 140 km (87 miles) of rock and seawater before reaching the detector. The KM3NeT detectors are still under construction and have not yet reached their full capabilities. Neutrinos are produced through various astrophysical processes at various energy levels. For instance, low-energy neutrinos are born in nuclear fusion processes inside stars. High-energy neutrinos arise from particle collisions occurring in violent events such as a black hole greedily eating infalling 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. The study of neutrinos is still in its formative stages. "So why it matters? It's basically just trying to understand what is going on in the cosmos," Heijboer said.
Reuters
12-02-2025
- Science
- Reuters
High-energy cosmic neutrino detected under Mediterranean Sea
Summary Detection was made 3,450 meters (2.1 miles) underwater Scientists try to determine where neutrino originated Studying neutrinos have provide new insight in astronomy Feb 12 (Reuters) - Using an observatory under construction deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily, scientists have detected a ghostly subatomic particle called a neutrino boasting record-breaking energy in another important step toward understanding some of the universe's most cataclysmic events. The researchers, part of the KM3NeT (Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope) Collaboration, believe the neutrino came from beyond the Milky Way galaxy. They identified 12 supermassive black holes actively guzzling surrounding matter at the center of distant galaxies as possible origination points, though the neutrino may have arisen from some other source. KM3NeT comprises two large neutrino detectors at the bottom of the Mediterranean. One called ARCA - 3,450 meters (2.1 miles) deep near Sicily - is designed to find high-energy neutrinos. One called ORCA - 2,450 meters (1.5 miles) deep near Provence, France - is designed to detect low-energy neutrinos. The newly described "ultra-high energy" neutrino, detected by ARCA in February 2023, was measured at about 120 quadrillion electronvolts, a unit of energy. It 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. "It's in a completely unexplored region of energy," said physicist Paschal Coyle of the Marseille Particle Physics Centre (CPPM) in France, one of the leaders of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, opens new tab. "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. Neutrinos offer scientists a different way to study the cosmos, not based on electromagnetic radiation - light. Many aspects of the universe are indecipherable using light alone. Neutrinos are electrically neutral, undisturbed by even the strongest magnetic field, and rarely interact with matter. As neutrinos travel through space, they pass unimpeded through matter - stars, planets or anything else. That makes them "cosmic messengers" because scientists can trace them back to their source, either within the Milky Way or across galaxies, and thus learn about some of the most energetic processes in the cosmos. "Neutrinos are ghost particles. They travel through walls, all the way through the Earth, and all the way from the edge of the universe," Coyle said. "Neutrinos have zero charge, zero size, almost zero mass and almost zero interaction. They are the closest thing to nothing one can imagine, but nevertheless they are key to fully understanding the universe." Other high-energy cosmic messengers zipping through space are not as reliable. For instance, the path of cosmic rays gets bent by magnetic fields, so they cannot be traced back to their place of origination. Detecting neutrinos is not simple, requiring large observatories located deep underwater or in ice. These mediums offer an expansive and transparent volume where a passing neutrino may interact with a particle, producing a flash of light called Cherenkov radiation. The researchers concluded that the one spotted at ARCA - which was a type of neutrino called a muon - was of cosmic origin based on its horizontal trajectory and the fact that it had traversed through about 140 km (87 miles) of rock and seawater before reaching the detector. The KM3NeT detectors are still under construction and have not yet reached their full capabilities. Neutrinos are produced through various astrophysical processes at various energy levels. For instance, low-energy neutrinos are born in nuclear fusion processes inside stars. High-energy neutrinos arise from particle collisions occurring in violent events such as a black hole greedily eating infalling 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. The study of neutrinos is still in its formative stages. "So why it matters? It's basically just trying to understand what is going on in the cosmos," Heijboer said.
