FANCY seeing the sky in neutrino? Supermassive black holes and exploding stars may give up their secrets now that neutrinos from space can be detected.
Until now, the only space neutrinos definitely detected came from the sun and a 1987 supernova explosion. But on Wednesday, the IceCube collaboration, which monitors a cubic kilometre of ice at the South Pole, reported the detection of 28 neutrinos. At least half almost certainly came from outer space, opening up the skies for neutrino astronomy.
Being chargeless, neutrinos zip from a source direct to Earth, so could be used to study supernovae and active galactic nuclei 鈥� galaxies powered by huge black holes, both of which produce neutrinos. 鈥淚f you have something that looks into the hearts of these beasts, maybe it鈥檒l help untangle what鈥檚 going on,鈥� says John Learned at the University of Hawaii, who is not part of IceCube.
Advertisement
鈥淟ooking into the heart of beasts like supernovae and galaxies may help us untangle what is going on鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淣eutrino eye opens鈥�