Strange particles coming out of the earth

Above Antarctica, far from human interference, is an antenna designed to find exotic particles at high energy in space as they enter the earth's atmosphere. Recently, the antenna has detected some particles coming from the other side – off the ground. It's a discovery that could change physics forever.

The experience of NASA's Antarctic Spike antenna has been designed to find exotic particles such as neutrinos falling from the sky. Such particles seldom exceed the upper atmosphere, so scientists send sensitive electronics into the sky via a high-altitude balloon. But when scientists spotted high energy particles from below, it means that these particles had to cross the entire earth.

It's weird Some exotic particles, like neutrinos, are not baffled by ordinary matter. They go through everything, including the entire planet. In fact, billions of neutrinos from the Sun are passing through your body right now and you feel nothing. The catch is that only low battery Neutrino particles can travel very far in other types of matter. High energy particles, on the other hand, are too energetic to cross the atmosphere (let alone the whole) without colliding with something.

NASA's flying antenna has detected two distinct cases of high-energy particles crossing the Earth, which should not be possible. In fact, a new article calculates that if these observed particles were neutrinos, they would each have less than one in a million chance to spread across the Earth. And yet scientists have spotted two.

One possible explanation, perhaps the only one that makes sense, is that a new kind of particle scientist has never seen it before. But a new particle means new physics, which is a big problem. Physical news does not happen every day, scientists take their time here. Currently, researchers are speculating on what these new particles might be, trying to adapt the little data they have to predictions of theoretical exotic particles.

These scientists will need more detections before reaching a solid conclusion. For now, all we have to do is wait for the NASA team in Antarctica to launch their balloon again so they can spot other strange particles coming out of the Earth.

Source: LiveScience