Researchers believe that the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be generating mysterious particles called neutrinos. If confirmed, this would mark the first time that scientists trace neutrinos back to a black hole.
The discovery could potentially help explain how cosmic rays are produced and unlock a key mystery about the workings of the universe. Evidence was gathered from observations of X-ray light by three satellites from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Neutrinos are tiny, chargeless particles that interact very weakly with electrons and protons. Unlike light or charged particles, neutrinos can emerge from deep within their cosmic sources and travel across the universe without being hindered by matter or deflected by electromagnetic fields, as is the case with charged particles.
Currently, Earth is constantly bombarded by neutrinos from the Sun. However, neutrinos from beyond the solar system could be millions or even billions of times more potent.
For a long time, scientists have been searching for the origin of high-energy and ultra-powerful neutrinos. They hypothesize that the most energetic neutrinos are created in the most powerful events in the universe, such as galaxy mergers, matter spiraling into supermassive black holes, and violent explosions around dense, spinning stars known as pulsars.
Due to neutrinos easily passing through matter, developing detectors to pinpoint their precise origin has been extremely challenging.
Yang Bai, an expert from the University of Wisconsin and co-author of the newly published research in the journal Physical Review D, stated, “Discovering the sources of high-energy neutrinos is one of the biggest challenges in modern astronomy. We now have the first evidence of an astronomical source – the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way – potentially generating these ultra-powerful neutrinos.”