An international team of researchers has spotted the first instance of a high-energy neutrino collision from a source outside of the Milky Way, marking what they describe as a significant discovery. In their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, the team describes their work at the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, the details pertaining to the sighting and why they believe their discovery may lead to a new era in neutrino astrophysics To see evidence of neutrinos, researchers fill large underground tanks with different types of fluids and then use extremely sensitive sensors to capture very brief flashes of light which are emitted when a neutrino collides with something in the fluid. The team with this latest effort has taken a different approach, they have placed sensors around a kilometer sized ice cube 2.5 kilometers beneath the surface, in a location near the South Pole. The sensors capture the brief flashes that occur when neutrinos collide with particles in the ice. After much analysis, the team confirmed that the neutrino collision they observed was due to an emission from that very galaxy, making it the first neutrino collision to be traced back to a source outside of the Milky Way. http://phys.org/news/2016-04-high-energy-neutrino-milky.html Paper: http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys3715.html
Very cool! Now we just need to up the sensitivity a bit... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Neutrinos have inertial mass, imparted by the Higgs mechanism. Energies as high as 2 PeV (peta electron Volts) have been observed. way cool, yes indeed.
