A ghostly particle crashing into the Antarctic in 2019 is traced back to a dark hole that breaks down a star, serving as a gigantic accelerator for cosmic particles, finds new research.
Scientists investigated a type of neutrino subatomic particle produced by nuclear reactions and the radioactive decay of unstable atoms. Neutrinos are incredibly light – about 500,000 times lighter than electrons.
Neutrinos have no electric charge and interact with other particles only occasionally. They will then quickly pass the body of matter – just about half of the neutrinos fly through it can avoid a light-year worth of lead, equivalent to some 5.8 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers.).
Neutrinos often hit atoms, however. As this takes place, they emit telltale light flashes that scientists have previously seen to confirm their presence.
As the galaxy 2MASX J20570298+super-massive 1412165's black hole ripped the star apart, approximately half of the star's waste was hurled into space while the rest formed a glowing accretion disc around the Black Hole. (Desy Science Communication Lab Picture Credit)
The latest research investigated a high-energy neutrino, which was observed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the South Pole on 1 Oct. 2019.
The co-author Anna Franckowiak, now at the University of Bochum, in Germany, said in a statement, "They smashed through the Antarctic ice with a tremendous amount of energy of more than 100 Tera electron-volts. 'It is at least ten times more particulate energy to equate to that obtainable in the Massive Hadron Collider, the world's most efficient particulate accelerator.'
The scientists followed their journey across space to discover the source of such a strong neutrino. They found that it possibly originated from the galaxy considered to be named "2MASX J20570298+1412165" in the constellation of Delphinus, the dolphin.
Scientists saw astronomers at Zwicky Transient Facilities about six months before scientists could detect the neutrinos from this galaxy at Mount Palomar in California. This light may come from an incident of tidal disruption, which shredded a star known as "AT2019dsg."
On 19 October 2019, the Zwicky Transient Facility took the picture of AT2019dsg (circled). (Credit of the image: ZTF/Caltech Observatories)
Researchers claim that a star is passing too close to a supermassive black hole, about 30 million times the sun in the middle of galaxy 2MASX J20570298 + 1412165. The colossal seriousness of the black hole, an extreme version of how moons lift and fall tides upon the earth and then break it apart.
The study's lead writer and mixer astronomer Robert Stein, at the Germany-based Synchrotron Electron (DESY) in Zeuthen, Germany, said: "The theoretical work was long predicted that neutrinos could come from tidal disruption. He and his colleagues detailed online their results on Feb. 21 at a Nature Astronomy journal. "This study represents the first observational evidence to support this assertion.
These new results highlight events of mare disruption, most of which are unknown. In a particular case it was proposed by scientist Cecilia Lunardini, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, that neutrino originated from jets of matter bloating out of close proximity to the black hole's accretion disk at nearly light speed. In a complementary analysis in the journal Nature Astronomy, she and Walter, co-author of DESY, detailed her results online on Feb. 22.
While these relativistic jets possibly sprouted out several different types of particles, they mostly were electrically charged particles that, before reaching Earth, were deflected by intergalactic magnetic fields. In comparison, the tidal disruption events will cause neutrinos (who have no charge) to travel on a straight line such as light rays.
This finding is only the second time scientists have returned to their source with a high-energy neutrino, Stein said. In 2018, astronomers were first to trace such a neutrino back to the Blazar TXS 0506+056, the colossal elliptical galaxy with an incredibly fast-spinning black hole.
"Knowing where high-energy neutrinos come from is a big question in particle astrophysics," Stein said. "Now we have more proof they can probably come from tidal disruption events."
One unusual aspect of this finding was the observation of a neutrino just half a year after the star was swallowed by the black hole. Stein said that the tidal disturbance event would serve as a giant accelerator of cosmic particles for a month.
Although only one neutrino from this tidal disruption event was observed by researchers, "for us to detect even one, there must have been billions and billions it was generating," he added. "We got lucky to see one."
Source Space.com