![]() Their ionizing particles in our atmosphere were detected for the first time more than 100 years ago, in 1912, by physicist Victor Hess. Here’s why.ĭetecting neutrinos on Earth can allow them to be traced back to their sources, which could reveal more about the origin of mysterious cosmic rays.Ĭosmic rays, the most highly energetic particles in the universe, bombard Earth from space. Strange as they are, neutrinos can help us understand the universe in new ways. Some physicists say this is leading to a new era of neutrino astronomy. ![]() While it may take decades to truly understand what they can tell us, scientists believe that tracing neutrinos back to their sources can shed light on their origins in the distant universe. What’s exciting about the quest to understand neutrinos, strange particles detected on Earth that are prevalent in the universe, is that it’s ongoing and evolving - and has only just begun, really. Gorham noted, however, that the team of researchers directly involved did not posit this theory. One of those theories involves the idea of a parallel universe. Recent articles by other media outlets about some of the unusual data picked up by ANITA have conflated theories by physicists outside the experiment, with that of researchers using the instrument. The data have not, however, proved the existence of a parallel universe, said Gorham, who is also the principal investigator of ANITA, short for Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna, a high energy particle detector in Antarctica. A billion of them go through our noses every second and we don’t even feel it.”ĭata collected by detectors in Antarctica and teams of devoted scientists have suggested new insights about neutrinos, as well as some anomalies that can’t be explained. No one ordered all of the crazy features they have, they just showed up, and we’re still trying to figure out what they are,” said Peter Gorham, professor of physics at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. “Neutrinos are these crazy, weird particles. Neutrinos have almost no mass and can travel through the most extreme environments, like stars, planets and entire galaxies, and not change their structure at all. These tiny, high-energy cosmic particles are often referred to as “ghostly” because they are extremely volatile, or vaporous, particles that can pass through any kind of matter without changing. Even though we can’t see them, we live our lives surrounded by neutrinos.
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