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Artist’s impression of a blazar — MichaelTaylor / Shutterstock.com

A German-Swiss team has arguably solved a lingering cosmic mystery, concluding conclusively that a subset of astronomical objects were the source of cosmic neutrinos hitting our planet.

PeVatron blazars

For many decades, astrophysicists are trying to determine precisely the source of the charged particles moving at near light speed and bombarding the Earth. Notoriously difficult to trace, these can be deflected as they travel through the cosmos due to their charge. To solve this mystery, the scientific community is counting on neutrinosneutral particles also produced by cosmic rays, which have a very low mass and do not interact with matter.

In 2017, researchers succeeded in tracking down a high-energy neutrino usingIceCube neutrino observatoryin Antarctica, suggesting that it emanated from a blazar called TXS 0506+056. Some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, these distant galactic nuclei are powered by supermassive black holes.

Thanks to IceCube data and a catalog of astronomical objects, Marco Ajello and colleagues believe they have identified the subset of blazars causing these neutrinos “cosmic”. According to the team, the odds of this being a coincidence are less than one in a million.

neutrino-universe
— Naeblys / Shutterstock.com

We had obtained a first clue five years ago, now we have irrefutable observational evidence “, write the authors of the new study, published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. ” These results demonstrate for the first time that the subsample of blazars PeVatron are extragalactic neutrino sources and therefore cosmic ray accelerators. »

A major breakthrough for astrophysics

According to Ajello, discovering the source of high-energy neutrinos is a major breakthrough for astrophysics. While studying blazars closely will help scientists determine what makes them good particle accelerators, the joint understanding of different messengers »such as cosmic rays, neutrinos and gravitational waves, will provide a broader framework for studying and understanding the Universe.

It could be compared to being able to smell, hear and see at the same time “, explains the researcher. ” Being able to rely on multiple detections of different messengers provides a much more detailed insight into the cosmos than you would get based on light alone.. »


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