Antarctic ice gives up secret to the origins of light

THE secrets of the origins of light could be unlocked by the discovery of a “ghost” particle a mile beneath Antarctica.

Astronomers have for the first time identified the source of a high-energy neutrino which shot through a laboratory at the South Pole, according to a study in the journal Science.

Neutrinos are virtually massless subatomic particles that race across the universe, passing unnoticed through planets and stars. Despite their abundance they have so far proved impossible to detect, because they interact with matter so rarely.

However, the discovery of a neutrino in 2017 has since enabled scientists to identify its point of origin using a complex network of telescopes.

The international team traced the particle’s provenance to a flaring galaxy, or “blazar”, with a supermassive black hole at its heart, four billion light years away. Because the neutrino comes from such a powerful light source, it should allow scientists to investigate the precise mechanism through which light is formed.