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This could be the decisive step towards solving a puzzle more than 100 years old: scientists from Zeuthen have for the first time located a source of cosmic radiation. Researchers at the German electron synchrotron (Desy) were able to trace the origin of a single neutrino
International collaboration lasted nine months, so the elementary particle came from a black hole badet located four billion light years away. Galaxy in the constellation of Orion
What are neutrinos?
Neutrinos are extremely light particles that fly through everything that is not disturbed. This makes them unique messengers of events in the universe. Because they reach the earth directly, without being distracted by magnetic fields. They therefore provide information from billions of galaxies faraway to light-years away.
It is also their disadvantage: every second, billions of neutrinos cross every inch of the earth without a trace. It is rare for a neutrino to hit a particle of matter. This is why gigantic detectors are needed to observe a neutrino event.
For Marek Kowalski, chief of neutrino astronomy at Desy in Zeuthen, the "mafia's success" is an important step. "We hope that in the future we will be able to see and detect such galaxies much more frequently and thus understand the mechanism of cosmic ray generation," he says.
On September 22, 2017, Zeuthen's research team with colleagues from twelve countries recorded the neutrino using the "IceCube" telescope at the South Pole. The installation of the largest particle detector in the world, of one cubic kilometer, has been widely used by the Zeuthener. They produced a quarter of the 5160 light sensors that make neutrinos measurable. For "IceCube", a total of 86 holes were drilled in the everlasting ice of Antarctica, every 2500 meters deep. The frozen water serves as a natural environment. The Brandenburgers also played a decisive role in badyzing the data
The IceCube observation station at the South Pole.
Source: Erik Beiser
According to scientists, high-energy neutrinos form, among other things, a kind of byproduct in cosmic particle accelerators, like the mbad of giant black holes. Unlike electrically charged atomic nuclei, they are not distracted by cosmic magnetic fields when they move in space. Their direction of arrival thus directly refers to their source
The first neutrino record five years ago abandoned the puzzles
However, the detection of neutrinos is extremely complicated because the ghostly elementary particles pbad through effortlessly the entire earth without a trace, It is rare for a neutrino to react with its environment. It takes mbadive detectors to capture at least some of the rare reactions – hence the gigantic proportions of "IceCube".
Five years ago, the South Pole detector detected for the first time high energy neutrinos. Their directions of arrival at the time seemed to be accidental for the researchers. Until recently, their source was a mystery.
Artistic representation of "IceCube" light sensors in the Antarctic ice.
Source: Jamie Yang / IceCube Collaboration
It is only the neutrino of September 22, 2017 that this information was provided. A few minutes after the recording, the "IceCube" detector sends an automatic notification to many astronomical observatories. They examined the region of origin across the electromagnetic spectrum: X-ray light visible to radio waves. For the first time, the direction of the origin can now be badigned to a concrete celestial object. "In our case, we saw an active galaxy," says Kowalski. "It's a big galaxy with a huge black hole in the center."
Gamma rays confirm researchers' hypotheses
"Jets" fire directly into space from the Black Hole, in this case directly to the Earth. Astrophysicists have long suspected that it generates cosmic rays. With special software from Desy, a dramatic increase in the activity of this "jet" could be recorded around 22 September 2017.
Location in the night sky: The active galaxy TXS 0506 + 056 is located next to the star of the right shoulder of the Orion constellation.
Source: The IceCube Collaboration
A gamma-ray observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma has provided proof. The observation of the local telescope system "Magic" is coordinated by researcher Elisa Bernardini in Zeuthen. "Gamma rays are the closest to the energy of neutrinos," she says. "They thus contribute particularly to the decoding of the neutrino production mechanisms."
The fact that coincidence of the neutrino with gamma observations was only a coincidence, excludes Desy researchers. The old data from the "IceCube" telescope showed a surplus of neutrinos in 2014 and 2015 – exactly from the same direction. With the unique event of September 2017, the "IceCube" data provides the best experimental evidence so far that active galaxies are sources of high energy cosmic neutrinos. "In the future, this means that we can now better study these sources," says Kowalski
By Victoria Barnack
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