Seven “Ghost Particles” Detected Streaming Through Earth. What They Are

Scientists working at the IceCube Observatory have detected seven rarely-seen “ghost particle” candidates piercing through Earth. The Observatory buried deep inside the ice of the southern pole of the Antarctic witnessed the phenomena after 9.7 years. These ghost particles, also known as astrophysical tau neutrinos, work like messengers between powerful celestial events and humans. Neutrinos have zero mass and lack any charge. They can travel through space at a speed similar to that of light. Because of their parameters, neutrinos hardly interact with anything they come across. 

Every second, almost 100 trillion neutrinos cuts through our bodies. But their lightning speed renders it impossible for us to notice, justifying the reason behind their ghostly nickname. In fact, even if you were a human-sized neutrino detector, it would take around a century for the particle to forge some sort of interaction with your body. 

Astrophysical neutrinos are high-energy neutrinos that come from cosmic sources near the brink of the Milky Way, which were first detected by the Observatory in 2013. Now, with the spotting of the astrophysical tau neutrinos, astronomers have found a new variation of the cosmic messenger.

In a statement, Doug Cowen, the co-leader of the project said, “The detection of seven candidate tau neutrino events in the data, combined with the very low amount of expected background, allows us to claim that it is highly unlikely that backgrounds are conspiring to produce seven tau neutrino imposters.”

“The discovery of astrophysical tau neutrinos also provides a strong confirmation of IceCube’s earlier discovery of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux,” added Doug Cowen who is also a professor of physics at Penn State University. 

Digital optical modules, also known as DOMs, are strings of golden globes buried in ice that the IceCube Observatory puts into use to identify neutrinos as they travel through Earth.  5,160 DOMs are buried deep under Antarctic ice, waiting to produce charged particles when neutrinos contact with the ice’s molecules. As these charged particles traverse through the ice, they release a blue light, which is detected by the DOMs.

Only three strings of DOM detectors were used in the current research. This discovery will not only help to expand the sample of tau neutrinos but it would enable scientists to embark on the first-ever three-generation research of neutrino oscillations.