In February 2023, A cosmic particle detector housed deep in the Mediterranean Sea recorded the arrival of a neutrino with the landing of 20 to 30 times more energy than any other neutrino Docgé before. Labeling km3-230213a, the particle had a calculated energy of 220 petro-colicovists (PEV), much higher than the 10 PEV of previous energy neutrin. The observation has generated a lot of excitement from Amang physicists, but also raised many questions.

Neutrinos are the The most abundant particles In the universe with the mass. These are a type of fundamental particle, which means that they do not die in constituents of Lonterler, and are therefore very small and light. In fact, they are the lightest of all the subocomic particles that have a mass. Neutrinos also have no charge (unlike electrons, for example, another type of fundamental particles, which are negative). As a resident, only only the neutrinos interact with other subjects; Often they will cross it without modifying it. In fact, billions of neutrinos traveling in space will have gone through your body since you started reading this article. For this reason, neutrinos called “ghost particles”.

For particle physicists, the detection of this neutrine bound of abnormally energy is only explained in two ways: either km3-230213a was proof of a cosmic process, perhaps that we had never witnessed before, with the potential to change our neutrino underlying; Now it was a disappointing error of measurement. The researchers quickly started to work to find out what explanation was true.

Now there seems to be an answer. A complete study published in the journal Physical review X Compared the data from KM3-230213A with information databases on other ghost particles that have been detected. Having analyzed the available data, believe scientists that this remarkable ultra-energy neutrinos was not a statistical illusion.

But when did he like it?

Just as a rock cannot disconcert the nature of a mountain, at 220 Pev Neutrino alone is not useful to explain the phenomenon which gave birth to it. As the article recognizes, with the information available, it is not possible to “draw firm conclusions on Wherere that the observation refers to a new ultra-high energy component in the spectrum”.

But if there are time other records of similar neutrinos, this would arise for substantial progression by suggesting that other previous USS phenomena are there. “This means that we see cosmogenic neutrinos for the first time, produced when the cosmic rays interacted with the cosmic microwave, or that it flows towards a new type of astrophysical source,” said the study.

The energy of Neutrino 2023 also suggests that it was issued by one of the powerful cosmic accelerators which we are aware in the universe: a burst of range or a supernova, or perhaps a relativistic jet – a beam of plasma emitted by the proximity of a black hole. In the contrast, many neutrinos detected on earth are atmospheric neutrinos, produced by the impact of cosmic rays striking atoms in the atmosphere of the earth, and are much less energetic. These are the same particles, but their probable origins have an impact on their energy.

Different branches of science use and study neutrinos for various reasons. Because neutrinos cross the universe without being deflected or absorbed, they can provide valuable information on very distant cosmic events. Some scientists consider them “journalists from the universe” who, from time to time, go to earth with data that wrapped otherwise.

This story initially looked at Wired in Español and was translated from Spanish.