IceCube detects ghost particles with 10 billion times the energy of solar neutrinos

Mysterious particles called neutrinos constantly stream through our bodies, and scientists are now detecting incredibly powerful versions arriving from distant cosmic sources using a massive observatory buried in Antarctic ice. These elusive “ghost particles” could hold extraordinary clues about the Big Bang, extreme cosmic events, and some of the universe’s greatest mysteries. IceCube detects ghost particles with 10 billion times the energy of solar neutrinos.

Fuller, IceCube/National Science Foundation An enormous number of invisible particles are constantly traveling through Earth, passing through our bodies and continuing into space as though almost nothing stands in their way. Known as neutrinos, these mysterious particles are among the most difficult objects in the universe to detect. Yet scientists are finding ways to capture evidence of their passage, opening new opportunities to investigate the cosmos and its most extreme environments.

Neutrino research has played a remarkable role in modern physics. Discoveries involving these particles have contributed to five Nobel Prizes in Physics. This year, physicist Francis Halzen received the prestigious award "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin." George Fuller, a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of California San Diego, has studied nuclear physics, particle astrophysics, and cosmology for decades.