Scientists have found the highest-energy cosmic neutrino called a "ghost particle" at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea using a special telescope called KM3NeT. The neutrino has 30 times the energy of the few hundreds of neutrinos that have been found so far.
The neutrino is referred to as "ghostly" due to its great vapority, or volatility, which allows it to move through any type of matter without changing. Even after passing through the most hostile environments, including stars, planets, and even galaxies, the particles maintain their solidity.
Brad K. Gibson, a co-author of the KM3NeT Collaboration, said, "This single neutrino contained as much energy as the energy released from splitting one billion uranium atoms-a mind-boggling comparison when we consider the energy of our nuclear fission reactors versus this one tiny, ethereal neutrino."
Study co-author Rosa Coniglione, KM3NeT deputy spokesperson and researcher at Italy's INFN National Institute for Nuclear Physics, explained that neutrinos were special cosmic messengers. They provide unique information about the mechanisms behind the most energetic phenomena and allow scientists to explore the farthest reaches of the universe, Coniglione added.
Scientists are unsure about the origin and nature of the particle, but they believe the neutrino came from beyond the Milky Way galaxy. This raises questions about what created the neutrino and sent it across the universe, with possibilities, including extreme environments like a supermassive black hole or a collision between cosmic rays and photons.
Nicole Bell, a theoretical physicist at the University of Melbourne, said that the particle's origin is unknown because high-energy neutrinos like KM3-230213A are unlikely to come from traditional sources of neutrinos like the Sun.
"It could be the first sign of something new or something we have not yet properly understood," said Professor Bell.
In recent years, many detection units for the Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope, or KM3NeT, have been installed at the Mediterranean Sea's bottom to assist in the search for neutrinos.
