The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has confirmed the first evidence of a source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, specifically from the blazar TXS 0506+056. This discovery resolves a century-old mystery regarding the origins of cosmic rays and neutrinos, with the blazar's gamma-ray flares detected by the Fermi telescope coinciding with neutrino observations. The neutrino in question had an energy of approximately 300 TeV, significantly higher than that of protons in the Large Hadron Collider. This finding suggests that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are likely the source of many high-energy cosmic rays.
PREREQUISITESAstronomers, astrophysicists, and researchers interested in cosmic particle physics, as well as anyone studying the origins of cosmic rays and neutrinos.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-07-century-old-riddle-resolveda-blazar-source.htmlAn international team of scientists has found the first evidence of a source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, ghostly subatomic particles that can travel unhindered for billions of light years from the most extreme environments in the universe to Earth.
The observations, made by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and confirmed by telescopes around the globe and in Earth's orbit, help resolve a more than a century-old riddle about what sends subatomic particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays speeding through the universe.
Since they were first detected over one hundred years ago, cosmic rays—highly energetic particles that continuously rain down on Earth from space—have posed an enduring mystery: What creates and launches these particles across such vast distances? Where do they come from?
Fermi was the first telescope to identify enhanced gamma-ray activity from TXS 0506+056 within 0.06 degrees of the IceCube neutrino direction. In a decade of Fermi observations of this source, this was the strongest flare in gamma rays, the highest-energy photons. A later follow-up by MAGIC detected gamma rays of even higher energies.
Particles of particular interest to the IceCube team pack a more energetic punch. The neutrino that alerted telescopes around the world had an energy of approximately 300 TeV. (The energy of the protons circulating in the 26.7-kilometer ring of the Large Hadron Collider is 6.5 TeV.)
Involute said:Vanadium:
Since the charged particles that comprise cosmic rays would travel a different path through space than neutrinos from the same source, would we ever expect to see both types of particles arrive at Earth at the same time from the same direction, or even different directions?
Thanks, but the first doesn't answer my question and the second is over my head, though the abstract suggests it doesn't answer it either.diogenesNY said:Coverage in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/science/space-neutrinos-blazar.html
and the article in Science: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/07/11/science.aat2890
diogenesNY
So, to slightly rephrase my original question, why "would we ever expect to see both types of particles arrive at Earth at the same time from the same direction, or even different directions?"nikkkom said:Sure, charged particles' direction of travel is sufficiently messed up by interstellar / intergalactic magnetic fields to make it impossible to track their origin.
This observation was of uncharged particles (gamma rays and neutrinos), whose direction of travel can only be altered by a rather strong gravitational field.