Researchers have created a telescope that can detect neutrinos in Antarctica. The mysterious particles originate outside of our solar system and hit Earth with the force of a baseball player's pitch.
"The era of neutrino astronomy has begun," Physics Professor Gregory Sullivan, who led the study, said in a University of Maryland news release.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is working to learn more about these particles that come from up to billions of light-years away and have been referred to as the "building blocks of the universe."
"The sources of neutrinos, and the question of what could accelerate these particles, has been a mystery for more than 100 years. Now we have an instrument that can detect astrophysical neutrinos. It's working beautifully, and we expect it to run for another 20 years," Sullivan said.
The particles have the ability to pass right through objects, including the human body. In fact, billions pass through our bodies every second. Many of these neutrinos originate inside our solar system or even in Earth's atmosphere, but some come from the outer-reaches of space.
Scientists still don't understand what causes neutrinos but some ideas have been considered including: black holes; gamma ray bursts; and active galactic nuclei.
Scientists have worked for over five decades to create a neutrino detector, and have finally accomplished their goal. The IceCube telescope hopes to detect the rate at which these particles stream to Earth, and where they come from.
The telescope is "5,160 digital optical modules suspended along 86 strings embedded in ice beneath the South Pole," the news release reported. It detects the neutrinos by picking up on flashes of blue light, called Cherenkov light, that is generated when the particles hit the Antarctic ice.
The researchers have already picked up 28 "very high-energy particle events," that provides proof of the neutrinos existence. Since neutrinos stream to Earth in a straight line, researchers may be able to find follow their trail and find their place of origin.
"IceCube is a wonderful and unique astrophysical telescope - it is deployed deep in the Antarctic ice but looks over the entire Universe, detecting neutrinos coming through the Earth from the northern skies, as well as from around the southern skies," Vladimir Papitashvili of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Polar Programs, said.
