It turned out that the neutrinos observed at Antarctica flew from the black hole 3.9 billion light ahead

by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Neutrinos are elementary particles that arise from nuclear fusion reactions occurring in the sun and supernova explosions. There is an observatory station to observe the neutrino in the basement of the Amundsen Scott Station in Antarctica, but the neutrino observed in September 2017 at the observatory is " It flew from the black hole "It turned out that it was.

Neutrino emission from the direction of the blazar TXS 0506 + 056 prior to the IceCube-170922A alert | Science
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/07/11/science.aat 2890

The IceCube Neutrino Detector at the South Pole Hits Paydirt - IEEE Spectrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/astrophysics/the-icecube-neutrino-detector-at-the-south-pole-hits-paydirt

Since neutrinos are difficult to react with other substances, they are known to be very difficult to observe, and it is possible to detect only at large observation facilities. At the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory built to observe the neutrinos, the Antarctic ice with a regular hexagonal area of ​​more than 1 square kilometer in area was filled with a hot water drill pressed at a depth of 2450 m. Dig into two pieces vertically, and a thin rod equipped with 60 optical sensor modules is inserted. The optical module is mounted at an interval of 17 m with respect to the rod and it is adjusted so that all the modules are arranged in the range of 1450 m to 2450 m from the surface of the ice.

After that, if the water in the hole freezes again and becomes ice as the original, a stereoscopic observatory which is united with huge ice will be completed. The optical module is enclosed in a basketball large- sized borosilicate glass so that it can withstand pressure, and an integrated circuit, power supply, magnetic shield, etc. for transmitting data are built in.

When neutrinos collide with atoms in transparent ice, heavier elementary particles are released than electrons called mu particles . Light travels at a rate that is 24% slower in the ice compared to the vacuum, so the mu particles released in the ice will travel faster than the light traveling in the ice. When particles move locally at a speed exceeding the speed of light , blue light called Cherenkov light is generated. The optical module at the ice cube / neutrino observatory is a facility that can detect this Cherenkov light.

by Alan Light

At the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory, alerts occur when a reaction by neutrinos is detected and scientists around the world are informed to explore the source of neutrinos. Nevertheless, it is extremely rare for neutrinos to collide with atoms, so Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory was set up so that researchers will not miss a small chance until the longevity. Cherenkov light is diverged by bubbles in the ice, so the optical modules that compose the ice cube are buried under the pressure where pressure is applied and bubbles are shut off from the ice.

The ice cube / neutrino observatory completed in 2010 is impossible to update in hardware because all equipment is buried in a physically closed environment. For that reason, we analyzed various data collected to measure the error affecting the experiment, considering the dust in the ice caused by the past volcanic eruption and atmospheric dust to the observation result, a minor update I heard that it has repeated.

The Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory was set up to observe high energy neutrinos that came from outer space. However, since mu particles are also generated in the atmosphere of the earth, sensitive ice cube neutrino observation station frequently detects reactions by low energy neutrinos made on the earth. Scientists analyzed the characteristics of the ice in the surroundings of the optical module and adjusted so as to filter the low energy reaction so that the adjustment is advanced so that the alert sounds only in the high energy reaction flying from space I have done it.

by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

At 5:54 am on September 23, 2017 in Japan time, a reaction by the high energy neutrino " IceCube - 170922 A " was detected and alerts were sent to scientists around the world. Detection of high energy sources based on IceCube - 170922A was also performed by gamma ray burst observation by Swift astronomical satellite managed by NASA, and we discovered the possibility that some blazers are sources of energy. A blazer is a heavenly black hole in the center of a gigantic elliptical galaxy that is a source of energy, shining brightly.

Over the next 14 days, the source of energy was detected by observatories around the world. Soon after confirming that visible light emitted by Blazer known as " TXS 0506 + 056 ", which is located 3.9 billion light-years away from the group mainly based on Hiroshima University , is boosting compared with past observations It is said that it was done. After that, it turned out that the increase in TXS 0506 + 056 was linked with the gamma ray emission exceeding the normal time. Since the timing at which IceCube - 170922A was observed and the timing at which gamma ray emission at TXS 0506 + 056 became active coincided, the neutrinos detected at IceCube - 170922A have a probability of 99.7% or more with Blazer TXS 0506 + 056 It was concluded that it was due to.

The team at the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory says "This result is a wonderful discovery," I am delighted with the discovery this time. However, it seems that the research team wants to further improve the observation accuracy of neutrino by further increasing the data available at the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory. The research team said that he would like to extend the optical modules of the already installed ice cube / neutrino observatory to a wider range.

by Penn State