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The Discovery FilesMilky Way Neutrinos
NSF-supported researchers at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have used machine learning to create a picture of the Milky Way galaxy using high-energy neutrinos for the first time.
Credit: U.S. National Science Foundation
On a clear night uninterrupted by light pollution, you can make out the hazy band of light in the night sky that is our Milky Way galaxy with just your naked eye. What could we learn about the space around us if we observed it in an entirely different way? We'll explore in the U.S. National Science Foundation's "Discovery Files."
At the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica is the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a one-of-a-kind detector buried deep in the ice with over 5,000 sensors. The observatory searches for signs of high-energy neutrinos, ghost-like cosmic particles. Despite their abundance in the universe, only about one of these will interact with a person's body during a lifetime.
The NSF-supported IceCube collaboration has made a significant breakthrough, presenting a picture of our galaxy made of particles instead of light for the first time.
Using high-speed machine learning techniques and 10 years of IceCube research data, the collaboration created a picture of our galaxy using neutrino cascades. These occur when most of a neutrino's energy is deposited from space into a small area on Earth.
This observation includes 30 times as many neutrino cascade events as any previous analysis, allowing for greater insight into the birth places of these neutrinos and a whole new view of our own milky way galaxy.
To hear more science and engineering news, including the researchers making it, subscribe to "NSF's Discovery Files" podcast.
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