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The VERITAS network has confirmed the detection of high energy gamma rays near a supermbadive black hole located in a far galaxy, TXS 0506 + 056. Although these detections are relatively common for VERITAS, this black hole is potentially the first known astrophysical source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, a type of ghostly subatomic particle that can be made from astrophysical sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.
The University of Utah is one of the founding collaborating institutions of the VERITAS Observatory. Co-author Dave Kieda, professor of physics and astronomy and Dean of the U U, led the design, construction and upgrade of VERITAS that gave the company the opportunity to learn more about it. instrument an increased sensitivity to gamma rays of lower energy critical for discovery. Anushka Udara Abeysekara, badistant professor of research in physics and astronomy at the U, is also co-author on paper
"It's the first time we see high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos generated by a common astrophysics.This is proof that near and far galaxies with supermbadive black holes in their centers are actively creating high energy cosmic rays, "said Kieda." This is one of the puzzle pieces needed to solve the mystery from which these cosmic rays originate. "
The University of Utah also operates the Cosmic Ray Observatory Telescope Array based in Delta, Utah In 2015, the University of Utah Telescope Array Group identified a potential hot spot of ultra-high energy cosmic rays originating from a vast region of the sky containing many potential sources of cosmic rays. ext Because the magnetic field of our galaxy curves the trajectory of incoming cosmic particles, the Array telescope was unable to identify an individual galaxy as the origin of cosmic high energy rays. The discovery of gamma rays VERITAS, badociated with the detection of neutrinos ICECUBE, makes it possible to directly identify a single galaxy like source of cosmic rays of high energy. This "multi-messenger" approach to astronomy – employing joint observations of neutrinos, gamma rays, x-rays and cosmic rays – provides a major breakthrough in understanding the astrophysical origin of the particles the more energetic from the universe
. "The era of multi-messenger astrophysics is here," said France Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation. "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. possible that thanks to a long-term commitment VERITAS provides an essential piece to the puzzle of neutrino discovery “/>
VERITAS Provides Essential Piece to Neutrino Discovery Puzzle
The VERITAS network has confirmed the detection of gamma rays near a supermbadive black hole. Although these detections are relatively common at VERITAS, this black hole is potentially the first known astrophysical source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, a type of ghostly subatomic particle.
September 22, 2017, IceCube Neutrino Ice Observatory, one cubic kilometer The South Pole neutrino telescope detected a high energy neutrino of potential astrophysical origin. However, IceCube is not able to locate a source of neutrinos in the sky. Very soon, after detection of IceCube detection, telescopes from around the world, including VERITAS (which means "high-energy radiation telescope network system"), went into action to identify the source. VERITAS, MAGIC and H.E.S.S. The gamma-ray observatories have all examined the position of the neutrino. In addition, other gamma-ray observatories that monitor much of the sky at lower and higher energies have also provided coverage.
These observation observations of the raw position of the IceCube neutrino suggest that the source of the neutrino is a blazar. a supermbadive black hole with powerful jets that can change significantly in brightness over time. This blazar, known as the TXS 0506 + 056, is located in the center of a galaxy about 4 billion light years from Earth.
Initially, NASA's Gamma-Ray space telescope observed that TXS 0506 + 056 was several times brighter. seen in his all-sky surveillance. Finally, the MAGIC observatory did a much more energetic gamma ray detection about two weeks after neutrino detection, while VERITAS, H.E.S.S.S. and HAWC did not see the blazar in any of his observations during the two weeks following the alert.
Given the importance of higher energy gamma ray detections to identify the possible source of the neutrino, VERITAS continued to observe TXS 0506+ 056 in the following months, until February 2018 , and revealed the source but at a lower state than was detected by MAGIC.
The detection of gamma rays coinciding with neutrinos is enticing, since both particles must be produced in the generation of cosmic rays. Since they were first detected over a hundred years ago, cosmic rays – highly energetic particles that continually fall on Earth from space – have posed a lasting mystery. What creates and throws these particles over such great distances? Where do they come from?
"The potential link between the neutrino event and TXS 0506 + 056 would shed new light on the mechanisms of acceleration that occur at the core of these galaxies, and provide clues to the century-old question of Origin of cosmic rays, "said co-author and spokeswoman for VERITAS Reshmi Mukherjee of Barnard College of Columbia University in New York, New York, 1969." Astrophysics between in an exciting new era of multi-messenger observations, in which celestial sources are studied through the detection of electromagnetic radiation that they emit in the spectrum, high-energy gamma-ray radio waves, in combination with non-electromagnetic means, such as gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos "Marcos Santander of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
An article describing the professor's observations VERITAS waves of TXS 0506 + 056 appears online in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 1, 2018.
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