All About Space Magazine Issue 82 Back Issue

CHASING THE GHOST PARTICLE
You've probably heard much about a so-called ghost particle in the news recently; a member of the fundamental family of particles that make up all known matter and move unimpeded through the universe, interacting with almost nothing, you can see how they get their name. But astronomers know them as something that's much more familiar to us – the neutrino. You'd be right in thinking that they are made in the Sun, but they also hail from a more-distant location: a super-active galaxy that's firing high-energy ghost particles right at us. What's particularly interesting about these cosmic neutrinos is that, as you'll discover inside, we've finally pinpointed where they're coming from in deep space. What's more, now that we've finally caught these speed freaks we're able to work out much more about their role in the universe. Take a trip over to the bottom of the world that is, the Antarctic with us to find out more.