Neutrinos are small, massless particles. They speed throughout deep space and appear to come at Earth from all directions. When atomic nuclei come together or disintegrate, they produce these particles. This can happen in galactic and cosmic sources (such as supernova surges) to produce high-energy neutrinos. There are likewise climatic neutrinos, produced when a cosmic ray smashes through the air. A team of 350 scientists worked together to map high-energy neutrino emissions from the Milky Way. It ends up that the Milky Way produces far fewer of them than lots of remote galaxies.
” Whats intriguing is that, unlike the case for light of any wavelength, in neutrinos, deep space outshines the neighboring sources in our own galaxy,” says Francis Halzen, a teacher of physics at the University of Wisconsin– Madison and principal detective at IceCube. He and the group desire to know why.
Weve seen the Milky Way with ultraviolet eyes, through x-ray vision, gamma-ray views, radio emissions, microwaves, and visible light. Now, think about a neutrino viewpoint. Thanks to the IceCube Collaboration, we get to see our home galaxy through the lens of this strange particle. Its a spooky sight that also tells us our galaxy isnt quite like the others. Its a neutrino desert.
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Mapping the Wild Neutrino
IceCube Collaboration focused on the main part of the Milky Ways stellar plane. Theres a consistent “background buzz” of energetic particles produced by cosmic-ray interactions with Earths atmosphere. That made it difficult to sift out the sparse numbers of high-energy neutrinos from stellar sources.
This image reveals a visual representation of among the highest-energy neutrino detections superimposed on a view of the IceCube Lab at the South Pole. Credit: IceCube Collaboration
These represent astrophysical neutrinos from beyond Earth, such as those from the energetic core of the M77 galaxy. They compared those from the Milky Way to prediction maps of locations where the Milky Way should be bright in neutrinos. That informed the team the Galaxy does not match up to other galaxies in terms of neutrino output.
Neutrinos Provide a Clue or Two
This perplexing discover in our own galaxy raises other concerns about why its so lacking in these particles. According to collaborator Ke Fang, its 10 to 100 times dimmer in neutrinos than the others. That raises the question of why thats true and where the high-energy sources exist.
” One ramification is that our galaxy has actually not hosted the type of sources that produced the bulk of high-energy neutrinos for the past few million years,” said Fang, “which is approximately the time because the last jet activity of the black hole of our own galaxy. Planned and future follow-up analyses by IceCube will further our understanding of the particle accelerators of our own galaxy.”
The core of the Milky Way, with the supermassive black hole (Sag A *), is obscured from us by large clouds of gas and dust. In those places, neutrinos are produced in abundance. Additional IceCube observations of the main aircraft of the Milky Way must help explain its neutrino-poor “problem.”.
About IceCube.
The IceCube observatory is the first-ever neutrino detector constructed at the South Pole. The real detector is embedded in a kilometer-sized block of ice, which helps it in the search for neutrinos. Not only does this observatory search out neutrinos and other particles, but its supposed to help scientists answer some essential mysteries in science.
For more details.
IceCube reveals Milky Way Galaxy is a Neutrino DesertObservation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic planeIceCube Observatory.
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A team of 350 scientists teamed up to map high-energy neutrino emissions from the Milky Way. These represent astrophysical neutrinos from beyond Earth, such as those from the energetic core of the M77 galaxy. They compared those from the Milky Way to prediction maps of places where the Milky Way need to be brilliant in neutrinos. That informed the group the Galaxy doesnt match up to other galaxies in terms of neutrino output.
The IceCube observatory is the first-ever neutrino detector developed at the South Pole.
