Astronomers detect seven potential ‘ghost particles’ that passed through planet
Scientists using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica believe they have potentially found the first evidence for astrophysical tau neutrinos, called "ghost particles" because of how hard they are to find.
An artistic rendering of the IceCube Lab at the south pole based on a real image. (IceCube/NSF) Neutrinos are miniscule subatomic particles that hardly interact with anything. This means that they can travel massive distances undisturbed and that in turn means that it is much easier to trace them back to their source, helping us understand more about the distant universe. Scientists from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory say they have discovered evidence for the elusive astrophysical tau neutrinos.
“The detection of seven candidate tau neutrino events in the data, combined with the very low amount of expected background, allows us to claim that it is highly unlikely that backgrounds are conspiring to produce seven tau neutrino imposters. The discovery of astrophysical tau neutrinos also provides a strong confirmation of IceCube’s earlier discovery of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux,” said Doug Cowen, a professor of physics at Penn State University and one of the study leads, in a press statement.
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