It’s a « wall-passing » meteor, a particle that can pass through everything—both the Earth and our bodies—at the speed of light, and fortunately for us, without any effect. The neutrino, produced in the Sun through nuclear fusion, in cosmic cataclysms such as supernovae, and even in our atmosphere, « is the lightest of the known massive particles that interacts very little with the rest of the matter, » explains Sonia El Hedri, an astrophysicist at the CNRS. If we wanted to stop the neutrinos coming toward us, we would need to build a lead wall 9 trillion kilometers thick.
« Neutrinos come from the farthest reaches of the universe and travel through the Earth without being absorbed by dust or other particles, » says Pascal Choyle, director of the research center at the Center for Particle Physics in Marseille. Since they are not altered, their message remains intact, allowing us to trace their origin.
« It is the closest thing to nothing that we can imagine, yet it is essential for understanding the workings of the universe, much like gamma rays, high-energy photons, and cosmic rays, » he continues. Because they carry no charge, unlike cosmic rays, they can directly indicate their source.
Source: news.yahoo
