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EDMONTON – Canadian scientists are part of an international team that for the first time traced a small inflection of matter to its source in deep space.
University of Alberta astronomer, Greg Sivakoff, says: Black hole neutrino at four billion light-years away will offer researchers a whole new way to probe the most exotic secrets of the universe – what astronomers call astronomy multimessenger
"It's like sitting down for a good meal. One of five Canadians who are part of the team.
"A good dish will look good, smell good, feel good and taste will be good A good meal will appeal to all your senses.
"Multimessenger astronomy C is the beginning of us sitting at meals and doing more than just looking at it.We start to have more meaning."
The story begins on the 22nd last September at the IceCube Antarctic Observatory, a cubic kilometer of solid ice intertwined with thousands of sensors to detect subatomic particles.
scientists detected an evanescent flash of blue light caused by a particle called muon. This muon was special for two reasons.
First, he was carrying a huge amount of energy – about 20 times more energy than the one generated in the second, he came from below, not above.
"This particular particle was coming out from beneath the Antarctic ice," said Sivakoff, "it could not be a muon that was generated in our atmosphere, it had to be a muon that was generated in the Earth itself and the only way to do that is with a neutrino. "
As a forensic team plotting the trajectory of a bullet, scientists were able to combine data from different sensors. in IceCube to deduce the original path of the neutrino.
"It is so that we were able to know where the neutrino came from in the sky."
After comparing notes with colleagues around the world, IceCube researchers were able to conclude that the neutrino was born from a blazar, a type of galaxy with a super-mbadive black hole in its heart, he Started his journey a little over four billion years ago, while life on Earth was just beginning. The conclusion has answered a big question in astronomy about how these high energy particles are generated and respond even longer.
Up to now, scientists have studied stars with visible light, electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves and more recently, gravity waves. Discovering the source of high energy neutrinos and following their path allows astronomers to use a completely new tool.
Much remains to be done before this date. Scientists need to study more of these neutrino events and link them to other sources to truly understand how the process works.
But Sivakoff said that multimessenger astronomy could finally answer questions about some of the most bizarre and spectacular phenomena in the universe.
It is as if Galileo was turning for the first time a telescope on the heavens.
"Whenever we open a new window to the universe, we learn new things – not just things we expected," Sivakoff said. "Often, these things we expected not become the greatest discoveries. "
" It's a lesson in humility. "
The discoveries were published Thursday in the journal Science
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