The Universe’s Most Elusive Signal Has Arrived

[Snowman]

And It’s More Powerful Than Ever​

by nasaspacenews February 22, 2025 in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, News, Others

The Highest-Energy Neutrino Ever Detected: A Groundbreaking Discovery Beneath the Mediterranean Sea​

Imagine capturing a glimpse of a cosmic ghost—something invisible, incredibly elusive, yet powerful enough to hold clues about the deepest mysteries of the universe. That’s exactly what scientists recently accomplished with the KM3NeT neutrino detector, despite the fact that the observatory isn’t even finished yet.

A Cosmic Breakthrough: What Happened?​

On February 13, 2025, the unfinished KM3NeT detector made history. Even though the detector, submerged deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea, was only 10% complete, it managed to spot a neutrino with an extraordinary energy level of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV)—a measurement so vast that it shattered all previous records. This groundbreaking discovery was reported in the prestigious journal Nature by the KM3NeT Collaboration.

Why Is This Discovery So Special?​

Neutrinos are often referred to as “ghost particles” because they’re incredibly difficult to detect. Trillions of them pass through your body every second without leaving a trace. Unlike other particles, neutrinos have no electric charge and interact only via gravity and the weak nuclear force—making them incredibly elusive. The fact that KM3NeT managed to detect a neutrino with such an exceptionally high energy level is nothing short of a scientific marvel.


This detection marks a significant advancement in neutrino astrophysics, opening new pathways to investigate cosmic events that produce ultra-high-energy particles, such as supermassive black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and blazars.


Neutrinos are the universe’s most mysterious messengers. They’re the second most abundant particles in the cosmos (after photons), yet they’re incredibly difficult to observe because of how weakly they interact with matter.


Neutrinos come in various energy levels, categorized mainly into two groups:

• Atmospheric Neutrinos: Produced by cosmic rays hitting Earth’s atmosphere.
• Cosmogenic Neutrinos: Much rarer and more energetic, these particles originate from high-energy cosmic rays interacting with photons from the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Detecting cosmogenic neutrinos is crucial because they can carry information from some of the most extreme events in the universe. By analyzing these particles, scientists can gain insight into phenomena like black hole collisions and the origins of cosmic rays.


The KM3NeT observatory, though incomplete, managed to achieve the impossible.


Located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, the Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) was designed to detect elusive neutrinos by capturing the rare interactions they have with matter. When a high-energy neutrino interacts with water molecules, it creates Cherenkov radiation—a faint blue light that occurs when charged particles travel faster than the speed of light in water.

https://nasaspacenews.com/2025/02/t...1cm-radiation-reveals-the-milky-ways-secrets/

 

[Snowman]

James Webb Telescope Reveals a Dazzling Light Show From the Milky Way’s Black Hole​

Unpredictable bursts of light are pulsing from the debris surrounding Sagittarius A*, offering new insights into the mysterious behavior of the most massive object in our galaxy


Ella Jeffries

Staff Contributor
February 21, 2025

An artist's illustration portrays the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A*. NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

The supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, is more dynamic than previously thought, according to new observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The infrared observatory has captured a nonstop, chaotic light show of flickers and dramatic flares from the gas and dust captured by the black hole’s enormous gravity.


“It is always bubbling with activity and never seems to reach a steady state,” Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and lead author of the study published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, says in a statement. “We observed the black hole multiple times throughout 2023 and 2024, and we noticed changes in every observation. We saw something different each time, which is really remarkable.”



Sagittarius A*—pronounced “Sagittarius A star” and called Sgr A* for short—is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth. It has long been known for its energetic activity, but JWST’s unique capabilities have allowed scientists to observe it with unprecedented detail. The telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) tracked the black hole for a total of 48 hours over the course of a year, observing five to six large flares per day with smaller sub-flares in between.


“In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness,” Yusef-Zadeh says in the statement. “And then boom! A big burst of brightness suddenly popped up. Then, it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity.”


The new results offer more to how our galaxy’s black hole changes over time, as Tuan Do, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, tells CNN’s Ashley Strickland. “This is what makes observations of the galactic center so exciting, even though we’ve stared at this spot in the sky for decades now.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...how-from-the-milky-ways-black-hole-180986091/

 

[Snowman]

Flickers and flares: Milky Way's central black hole constantly bubbles with light​

James Webb Space Telescope reveals ongoing, rapid-fire light show​

Date: February 18, 2025 Source: Northwestern University Summary: Astrophysicists have observed our central supermassive black hole. They found the accretion disk is constantly emitting flares without periods of rest. Shorter, faint flares and longer, bright flares appear to be generated by separate processes.

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way appears to be having a party -- and it is weird, wild and wonderful.


Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a Northwestern University-led team of astrophysicists has gained the longest, most detailed glimpse yet of the void that lurks in middle of our galaxy.
The swirling disk of gas and dust (or accretion disk) orbiting the central supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is emitting a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest, the researchers found. While some flares are faint flickers, lasting mere seconds, other flares are blindingly bright eruptions, which spew daily. There also are even fainter flickers that surge for months at a time. The level of activity occurs over a wide range of time -- from short interludes to long stretches.
The new findings could help physicists better understand the fundamental nature of black holes, how they interact with their surrounding environments and the dynamics and evolution of our own galactic home.
The study will be published on Tuesday (Feb. 18) in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250218113650.htm

 

[Snowman]

 

[Tirediron]

And you feel that NASA is capable of telling the truth??