Resumen de IceCube sees hint of cosmic neutrinos
Bert and Ernie came from outer space. A pair of neutrinos detected in Antarctica and named after the Sesame Street favorites may be the first of these ghostly particles seen coming from outside the solar system since 1987. If the finding is confirmed, such "astrophysical" neutrinos could lead to a new way of looking at the universe that may solve a number of cosmic puzzles. Neutrinos have no charge and negligible mass, which means they can travel through space largely unimpeded by matter and undeflected by electromagnetic fields. The same processes that generate astrophysical neutrinos should also create high-energy cosmic rays, so detecting those neutrinos would be a way to pinpoint sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays. These sources are typically hard to trace because cosmic rays are bent by magnetic fields as they travel.
