The Largest Antineutrino Ever Hit Antarctica
The neutrino observatory IceCube detected an antineutrino with an energy of 6.3 PeV making it the most energetic antiparticle we ever met. On top of that, during its detection, the observatory for the first time ever in history detected Glashow resonance – something that was predicted more than 60 years ago.
Image by Alex Prykhodko from Pixabay
- Be also sure to check out my other posts and follow me @kralizec and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Kralizec Gaming Youtube Channel
The famous neutrino observatory at the South pole called IceCube Neutrino Observatory some time ago detected the arrival of a monstrously energetic antiparticle. Actually, the most energetic antiparticle we ever saw. And while it happened in 2016 we had to wait until now to get the results.
So, it was an antineutrino, the antimatter twin of a neutrino – a particle with very little mass. It came from space at a speed close to the speed of light, flying for likely millions of light-years to end its life in the Antarctic’s ice. This antineutrino hit an electron creating a shower of particles that were detected by IceCube.
We have seen a good number of such detection. But this time, it was different. For the first time ever, the researchers detected a phenomenon that nobody before them did. The phenomenon was predicted by Sheldon Glashow in 1960.
He predicted that if an antineutrino with energy high enough hit an electron it should create a heavy and short-lived W boson. W bosons are an elementary particle that mediates the weak force alongside the Z boson. Glashow used the Standard Model of particle physics to make his prediction and the phenomenon he described is now called Glashow resonance. And since he is still alive is was likely very happy to have his prediction confirmed by observation.
If you want to have Glashow resonance happen then the incoming antineutrino had to have the energy of 6.3 PeV. That is an incredible amount of energy in a single particle. For example, scientists at CERN calculated that if a particle has an energy of 1 TeV it roughly equals the energy of a mosquito flying. 6.3 PeV = 6,300 TeV so this antineutrino had the energy of 6,300 mosquitoes flying. Or one hypersonic mosquito flying 8.2 times faster than the speed of sound.
Sources:
- If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other posts!
This might seem like a strange question - what's the significance of this? Is it important or just interesting?
As far as I know, for the time being, it is just interesting. But many scientific discoveries require time to become actually significant.
There'll be a boffin somewhere who'll dream up something. Maybe it created a new species that in a short time, will destroy man kind. A giant Ice Monster perhaps.