Park Forest Times

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Ghosts Are Real...For Real by Marcus Henry

Ghosts are real! I’m serious. They really are! Well, on the subatomic level, anyway. It’s called a ghost particle, or a neutrino. They are so called because they have the ability to pass through objects. That’s right. They can pass through objects! Neutrinos are also very tiny, volatile, and they have almost no mass whatsoever.

But where did this incredible thing come from? Scientists and observatories all over the world have finally traced the particle to a very distant galaxy. At the heart of this galaxy is a black hole, one that spins very, very fast. This black hole is called a blazar. The blazar sent the neutrino hurtling toward Earth, and it went deep into Antarctic ice, where IceCube sensors picked it up. IceCube went online in Antarctica in the year 2011, and it was made specifically for detecting neutrinos. The neutrino has been named: IceCube-170922A.

So, what’s next? We know very little about neutrinos, and have much to learn. I assume neutrinos will continue to be studied. And now, we have an identified source of neutrinos, which will certainly help us to study them.

Works Cited

Strickland, Ashley. “'Ghost Particle' Found in Antarctica Provides Astronomy Breakthrough.” CNN, Cable News Network, 12 July 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/07/12/world/neutrino-blazar-cosmic-ray-discovery/index.html.