What the Universe’s Most Elusive Particles Can Tell Us About the Universe’s Most Energetic Objects

In 2012, a tiny flash of light was detected deep beneath the Antarctic ice. A burst of neutrinos was responsible, and the flash of light was their calling card.

A burst of ghostly neutrinos may have been generated by a quasar like this. ESO/M. Kornmesser

In 2012, a tiny flash of light was detected deep beneath the Antarctic ice. A burst of neutrinos was responsible, and the flash of light was their calling card.

It might not sound momentous, but the flash could give us tantalizing insights into one of the most energetic objects in the distant universe.

The light was triggered by the universe’s most elusive particles when they made contact with a remarkable detector, appropriately called IceCube, which was built for the very purpose of capturing rare events such as this.

The team of international researchers now suspects the event may have originated from a quasar, which is the active nucleus of a galaxy billions of light-years away.

The flash also potentially opens up a new era of neutrino astrophysics and may help unravel the mystery of neutrino production in the universe.

There's a lot more of the IceCube neutrino detector below the ice. Erik Beiser, IceCube/NSF