Japanese scientists from the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo have discovered that active galactic nuclei (AGNs), also known as blazars, may be the source of “ghost particles” of neutrinos that constantly pass by Earth. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Astrophysical Journal (TAJ).
Neutrinos are called “ghost particles” because they are very difficult to detect because they have no charge and almost no mass. Neutrinos can penetrate dense dust clouds and other barriers that block other forms of matter and energy. Every second, approximately 65 billion neutrinos pass through our body without any intervention or effect.
In contrast, active galactic nuclei emit a wide range of electromagnetic radiation, from weak radio waves to extremely high-energy hard gamma rays. Scientists also noted that blazars also emit cosmic rays that form neutrinos when interacting with light particles.
To better understand the mysterious nature of neutrinos, the researchers observed the bursts of 144 blazars, allowing them to calculate the weekly flux of gamma rays.
The team statistically estimated the neutrino flux from each gamma-ray burst and developed a scaling relationship based on the blazar’s gamma-ray flux during quieter periods.
By comparing neutrino estimates over weekly and 10-year periods for each blazar with data over time from the IceCube neutrino detector, scientists were able to determine upper bounds on the flares’ contribution to the neutrino flux.
Astrophysicists expressed hope that their calculations will help understand the contribution of blazars to the origin of neutrinos.
Earlier astronomers spent The largest cosmological computer simulation in history.