Uppsala researchers may have loosened goats from space – Uppsala

The researchers are part of an international team that has presented a result for the first time, probably providing answers on the place where cosmic radiation is formed. Cosmic radiation was discovered in 1912. Since then, researchers have worked to understand its origins.

Using the IceCube telescope on the South Pole, researchers were able to identify a neutrino and track its origins. Neutrins are produced with cosmic radiation and consist of uncharged elementary particles that can pass through space in principle without being affected. The neutrino captured by the telescope has now been traced to the probable source, a so-called blazar – a giant elliptical galaxy that is about four billion light-years from Earth. In the middle of the galaxy, there is a solid, fast black hole that turns.

Cosmic radiation is difficult to observe and measure. It consists of charged particles moving through a powerful magnetic field. The new results are published in the scientific journal Science. Olga Botner from the University of Uppsala collaborated with colleagues from Stockholm University, among others:

– In September of last year, IceCube captured a neutrino at very high energy and alarmed other telescopes, explains Chad Finley of Physics, Stockholm University. A press release

– Meanwhile, NASA's Fermi satellite and the so-called Magic Telescope in the Canaries have seen an active galaxy explode several billion light-years away in the same direction as the neutrino.

Chad Finley was able to analyze earlier data from the IceCube telescope and found dozens of neutrons from the same direction. According to the researchers, they provide further evidence of a connection with high energy minerals and the active galaxy.

The IceCube telescope is located a few kilometers on the ice of the South Pole. It is funded by the US National Science Foundation, but also by Germany, Sweden and Belgium as well as by seven other countries. Swedish funding comes from the Swedish Research Council. Uppsala and the Stockholm University, along with three other universities, founded the first neutrino telescope on the South Pole in 1992.