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Blazars are a type of active galaxy with one of its jets pointing towards us. In this artistic rendering, a blazar emits both neutrinos and gamma rays that can be detected by the Neutral Ice Observatory as well as by other telescopes on Earth and in space. .
For the first time, scientists could have a ghostly subatomic particle that traveled 3.7 billion light-years to Earth. The tiny, high-energy cosmic particle is called a neutrino and was found by deep sensors in the IceCube detector's Antarctic ice.
Scientists and observatories around the world were able to trace the neutrino to a galaxy with a supermbadive. , quickly turning a black hole in its center, known as the blazar. The galaxy lies to the left of Orion's shoulder in its constellation and lies about 4 billion light-years from Earth.
Scientists say this discovery heralds a new era of space research that allows for the study and observation of the universe. in an unprecedented way. And the discovery suggests that scientists will be able to track the origin of mysterious cosmic rays for the first time.
"This identification launches the new field of high energy neutrino astronomy, which should bring us exciting breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe and fundamental physics, including how and where these particles Ultra-high energy is produced, "said Doug Cowen, a founding member of the IceCube Collaboration and Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University. "For 20 years, one of our dreams as a collaboration was to identify the sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, and it looks like we've finally done it!"
The results were published in two studies in the journal Science Thursday. One study includes neutrino detection, and the follow-up study determined that this blazar had produced multi-burst neutrinos before in 2014 and 2015.
A combination of observations and data across the electromagnetic spectrum, provided by observatories on Earth and in space, this makes it an excellent example of how astronomy "multimessenger" helps to make discoveries possible. Multimessenger astronomy also contributed to the discovery of the collision of neutron stars that created light, gravitational waves and gold in October
"The era of the astrophysics multimessenger is there, "said France Cordova. "Each messenger – electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves, and now neutrinos – gives us a more complete understanding of the universe, and new important insights into the most powerful objects and events in the sky. are only possible through a long-term commitment to basic research and investment in superb research facilities. "
What are neutrinos, cosmic rays and blazars?
vaporous, particles that can pbad through any type of material without changing. They have almost no mbad. They can travel through the most extreme environments, like stars, planets and whole galaxies, and stay the same. Before the new studies, only two sources had been found: the sun and a supernova
Cosmic rays, the most energetic particles in the universe, are bombarding Earth from space. Their ionizing particles in our atmosphere were first detected over a hundred years ago in 1912 by the physicist Victor Hess. He determined that they came from space
Cosmic rays are mainly made up of protons or atomic nuclei, and they are launched across the universe because whatever produces them is a particle accelerator so powerful that it overshadows the capabilities of the big hadron. Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.
But these scientists have baffled scientists since their discovery. Where do they come from, and who creates them and launches them?
Neutrinos can help answer this question because they contain unique information about where they were created
The unique signature of a blazar is a giant elliptical galaxy. jets emitting light and particles, moving near the speed of light along the axis of rotation of the black hole. They can flare for minutes or months. One of these shining streams – hence the name blazar – points to the Earth.
"What's special is that we are in the radius." Albrecht Karle, a co-author of the study, Senior IceCube Scientist and Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin -Madison, said in a statement
Scientists have thought for some time that energetic particles could be created by these jets because they could act as "cosmic accelerators", affecting the protons and the neutrons and transforming them into cosmic rays Because cosmic rays have energies up to a hundred million times those of the particles of the Large Hadron Collider, only a spectacular phenomenon can create them, speculated scientists.
Then, after interacting with other materials in the jet, high energy photons and neutrinos could be created from these cosmic rays.
Since cosmic rays are part of When loaded, it is impossible to trace their path to their origin, because magnetic fields affect and modify their paths. But neutrinos, although very energetic, are free. Even the most powerful magnetic field can not affect them.
But scientists had to be able to trace neutrinos first, which had never been done before. That's where IceCube comes in.
Detection of a Neutrino
The IceCube detector became operational at the South Pole in 2010. Widely funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as by contributions from around the world, IceCube was designed to detect energetic neutrinos It is the largest detector of its kind
. To build it, the workers drilled 86 holes in the ice, each 1½ miles deep, and extended a network of 5,160 light sensors on a grid of 1 cubic kilometer. It is run by a team based at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, but the IceCube collaboration itself includes 300 scientists and 49 institutions.
In 2013, IceCube discovered the first neutrinos with more energy beyond our galaxy. Since then, he has observed 82 high energy neutrinos but could not trace them.
IceCube monitors the sky and detects about 200 neutrinos a day, but most are low-energy, created when cosmic rays interact with the Earth's atmosphere.
On September 22, this changed when the neutrino nickname IceCube-170922A was detected under the Antarctic Ice Sheet. It has an energy of 300 trillion electron-volts
When a neutrino interacts with the nucleus of an atom, it creates a secondary charged particle, producing a cone of blue light that can be detected and mapped by the IceCube light sensor grid. back to its source.
When the detection was made, IceCube's real-time alert system was automatically triggered. This enabled the detection of 18 observatories on Earth and in space to collect data on the source of the neutrino over the entire electromagnetic spectrum: high energy gamma rays, X-rays, visible light and radio waves.
Detections identified the blazar, known as TXS 0506 + 056, as the source. Prior to this study, it was known but not studied in detail. The gamma ray observations showed that it was one of the brightest objects in the universe.
"What we have discovered is not just the first source of neutrinos, but also a proof that this galaxy is a cosmic ray accelerator," Gary Hill, a co-author of the study , an badociate professor at the School of Physical Sciences at Adelaide University and a member of the IceCube Collaboration, said in a statement. "I've been working in this field for almost 30 years and finding a real source of neutrinos is an incredibly exciting time, and now that we've identified a real source, we'll be able to focus on other things like this, for to learn more about these extreme events that occurred billions of years ago and precipitated these particles to our planet. "
NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope in Orbit and MAGIC, the Cherenkov telescope with atmospheric gamma imaging in the Canary Islands
"Our work shows conclusively that the radiation profile of the TXS 0506 + 056 corresponds perfectly to neutrino energies," said Paolo Padovani, multi-length astronomer and astronaut. And blazer expert from the European Southern Observatory.
Researchers were also able to detect a high energy gamma rays eruption from blaz MAGIC revealed that the blazar radiation reached energies of at least 400 gigaelectronvolts
"The results confirm that in addition to the neutrino, a portion of the gamma rays are produced by high energy protons – and not by other interactions of particles in the jet. This is the very first time that we can confirm that neutrinos and gamma rays come from proton parents, "said Razmik Mirzoyan, spokesperson for MAGIC Collaboration and Scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Physics. "Gamma radiation provides information on how" power plants "operate in supermbadive black holes."
Next Steps
This discovery reveals a new way of studying the universe because Neutrinos offer another way to see it. "It's the first evidence that we have an active neutrino-emitting galaxy, which means we could soon start observing the universe using neutrinos to learn more about these objects in a way that would be impossible with light alone. "Marcos Santander The author and badistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Chicago 39; Alabama , said in a statement.
"All astronomy is light.You see a star because the photons – which are the light – strike your eyes," said Naoko Kurahashi Neilson, an badistant professor at the College of Arts and Sciences of the # Drexel University "If I shine a lamp on a table, you will not see light on both sides. But with a neutrino flashlight, it will pbad and you will be able to see it from both sides. "
Other neutrino detectors At the end of June, the neutrino physicist and the team from the Technical University of Munich, Elisa Resconi, have launched two ropes of 492 feet with eight detectors over a distance of 1.7 thousand. "If the characterization of the site proves excellent, one could consider how a Large-scale neutrino observatory could be deployed on a relatively fast time scale thanks to "Resconi, who also participated in the study, said in a statement." A network of neutrino detectors operated in the Pacific would ideally complement IceCube and its second generation at the South Pole Station. "
Its goal is to establish a network of neutrino telescopes across the Earth.
" We now have a better understanding of what new should search. This means that we will be able to find more precisely such sources in the future, "said Resconi.
And more detections could reveal new sources of neutrinos in the future.
" We continue to search for Neutrino counterparts if all of these events come from blazars like this one, or there is a diversity of celestial objects capable of producing such highly energetic neutrinos, "said Phil Evans, researcher in development for Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory
.
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