Tag

Neutrinos

All articles tagged with #neutrinos

science2 days ago•2 min saved

Francis Halzen Wins 2026 Physics Nobel for IceCube Neutrino Discovery

Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational role in developing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The award recognizes his 1988 proposal to use a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice as a detector for high-energy neutrinos. In 2013, IceCube confirmed the existence of astrophysical neutrinos, opening a new era of multi-messenger astronomy. Halzen’s work allows scientists to trace cosmic events, such as supermassive black holes, that are invisible to traditional light-based telescopes.

via The Conversation|

#astrophysics #francis-halzen #icecube

science3 days ago•2 min saved

Francis Halzen Wins 2026 Physics Nobel for IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Belgian-born physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational role in developing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The award recognizes his vision for using a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice to detect high-energy neutrinos, particles that act as messengers from distant cosmic events. Halzen, now 82 and affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, first proposed the concept in 1988. The prize, worth 12 million Swedish kronor, highlights how IceCube has enabled a new form of astronomy by capturing signals from violent processes in the universe that traditional telescopes cannot observe.

via BBC|

#francis-halzen #icecube #neutrinos

science3 days ago•211 min saved

Francis Halzen Wins 2026 Physics Nobel for IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Francis Halzen, an 82-year-old Belgian astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized him for his pioneering work in the 1980s to detect high-energy neutrinos using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. Halzen’s vision led to the construction of a massive sensor network in glacial ice, which successfully detected cosmic neutrinos in 2013, opening a new field of astronomy.

via CNN|

#antarctic-research #francis-halzen #icecube-observatory

space19 days ago•122 min saved

Neutrino flavor changes may decide whether dying stars explode or collapse

New simulations show neutrinos that change flavor during a dying star’s core collapse can suppress explosions, biasing outcomes toward black holes; this could help explain why fewer supernovas are observed than predicted and why some massive stars yield low‑mass neutron stars, with future work to model neutrino behavior in 3-D.

via Space|

#black-hole #neutrino-flavor-change #neutrinos

science23 days ago•8 min saved

Flavor-changing neutrinos could quiet or derail supernova explosions

New modeling shows that neutrino flavor oscillations inside core-collapse supernovae can redistribute energy into non-electron neutrinos, weakening the heating behind the stalled shock and increasing the likelihood of failed explosions, which could help explain discrepancies in observed supernova rates. The result hinges on simplified assumptions and sensitive details like shock density, but points to flavor changes as a potentially important factor in determining a star’s fate.

via Ars Technica|

#core-collapse #flavor-oscillation #neutrinos

science29 days ago•135 min saved

Cosmic radio bursts as maps to hidden matter in the universe

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) — brief, intense radio waves from magnetars — are being used as new probes of the universe’s matter distribution. Analysis of about 100 FRBs suggests that gas ejected by galactic feedback smooths cosmic clumpiness, helping distinguish the roles of dark matter, dark energy, and neutrinos in structure formation. Researchers say this is just the beginning, with future FRB catalogs from the Deep Synoptic Array planned for 2029 expected to vastly boost cosmology studies.

via Space|

#astrophysics #cosmology #dark-matter

science1 month ago•10 min saved

Two clocks in the Sun: neutrinos escape in seconds while photons diffuse for 170,000 years

Fusion in the Sun produces neutrinos and photons that travel on very different timescales: neutrinos, interacting only weakly with matter, exit the core in about 2 seconds and reach Earth with only the minutes-long light travel delay, while photons undergo a long, random-walk diffusion through the dense radiative zone—being absorbed and re-emitted countless times—taking roughly 170,000 years before the energy reaches the photosphere. The photons reaching us are not the same particles from the core; energy is redistributed and carried outward, with convection taking over in the outer layers. This dual-timeline view underpins solar physics and helped resolve the solar neutrino problem via neutrino oscillations.

via Space Daily|

#fusion #neutrinos #photons

science1 month ago•166 min saved

Trillions of Cosmic Particles Zip Through You Every Second

Earth is constantly bathed in cosmic particles. About 100 trillion neutrinos pass through each of us every second, mostly from the Sun, and nearly all go through without interacting. Cosmic-ray showers also create muons—tens to hundreds pass through a person each second (roughly one or two through a hand). Neutrino interactions are extremely rare; detectors like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory infer their numbers from tiny Cherenkov flashes. Cosmic radiation adds about 0.4 millisieverts per year to our exposure, within a natural ~2.4 mSv/year background. In short, we’re continuously bathed in invisible particles, but they pose negligible health risk and connect us to the cosmos.

via Live Science|

#astrophysics #cosmic-rays #icecube

science1 month ago•5 min saved

Shutdown Antineutrinos Hint at a Non-Intrusive Nuclear Safeguards Method

Physicists from the Double Chooz Collaboration detected a faint residual flux of electron antineutrinos from shut-down reactors in France, validating a non-intrusive way to monitor reactor status and spent fuel for safeguards, with measured events closely matching predictions during 17.2 days of off-core data.

via ScienceAlert|

#antineutrinos #double-chooz #neutrinos

science1 month ago•46 min saved

Dark Matter as a Cosmic Magnifier Reveals Neutrino Origins

Researchers propose that some IceCube neutrino detections are magnified by gravitational lensing from a dark-matter filament deflecting emissions from the blazar PKS 2233-148, a finding that could sharpen our view of how neutrinos are produced and the black hole at a blazar’s core.

via Yahoo|

#blazar-pks-2233-148 #dark-matter #gravitational-lensing

science1 month ago•160 min saved

Invisible dark-matter lens briefly boosts a blazar’s jet, hinting at neutrino sources

Astronomers report that the jet from a distant blazar (PKS 2233-148) is being gravitationally lensed by an unseen dark-matter clump, temporarily magnifying the jet and potentially aiding the search for high-energy neutrino sources; the finding, supported by VLBA, Fermi, and Swift observations and published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offers a first hint that dark-matter substructure can produce lensing effects in relativistic cosmic jets.

via Space|

#blazar #dark-matter #gravitational-lensing

space1 month ago•43 min saved

AI unveils the Milky Way in a first-ever neutrino image

IceCube mapped the Milky Way with high-energy neutrinos over a decade, using deep learning to extract a faint galactic signal concentrated along the plane and toward the Galactic Center; the findings strongly indicate the Milky Way itself emits high-energy neutrinos, though no individual sources were pinpointed, and they pave the way for future IceCube upgrades and multimessenger studies.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#cosmic-rays #galactic-center #icecube-neutrino-observatory

science1 month ago•8 min saved

Chasing Ghost Particles: How Giant Detectors Unveil Neutrinos

From Pauli’s proposal to a lineage of colossal underground, underwater, and under-ice detectors, scientists have built ever-larger traps to catch neutrinos. Early solar-neutrino measurements at Homestake sparked a long puzzle that was resolved by experiments like Kamiokande, Super-Kamiokande, and SNO, which revealed neutrino oscillations and mass. Today, IceCube, KM3NET, Borexino, JUNO, Hyper-Kamiokande, and DUNE continue the hunt, probing neutrino properties across the cosmos and Earth with unprecedented precision.

via WIRED|

#detectors #neutrino-oscillations #neutrinos

science1 month ago•56 min saved

Betelgeuse’s Hidden Binary Holds Clues to Its Inevitable Supernova

Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant in Orion, will someday explode as a supernova but likely not for about 100,000 years. New observations strengthen the case that Betelgeuse has a binary companion (Betelgeuse B) hidden in its glare, which could influence its evolution. When it finally collapses, the explosion will unleash an enormous energy burst—mostly in the form of neutrinos—and could heat and strip some mass from the companion, though both stars would largely survive. Earth’s distance would likely keep the event from being catastrophic, but many details about the system and timing remain uncertain.

via Yahoo|

#astronomy #betelgeuse #binary-star

science2 months ago•10 min saved

Neutrinos Sketch Earth's Mantle Heat Map

A global network of neutrino detectors, including Canada’s SNO+ and China’s JUNO, is measuring geoneutrinos to quantify the heat-producing elements in Earth’s mantle. Early results from SNO+ show western hemisphere fluxes that hint at mantle heterogeneity linked to deep structures like large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), but large uncertainties remain. More data and improved geological modeling, and possibly an ocean-bottom detector, could sharpen the map of the planet’s interior heat sources.

via Quanta Magazine|

#geoneutrinos #juno #mantle