Neutrino astronomy

Neutrino astronomy studies cosmic sources and events by detecting neutrinos that arrive from beyond Earth. It uses their weak interactions and ability to travel through matter to probe regions opaque to light.

Neutrino: An electrically neutral elementary particle that interacts through the weak force and gravity. Cosmic neutrinos are the messengers this branch of astronomy detects.
SN 1987A: A supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud whose 1987 explosion was observed across multiple wavelengths. Neutrino detections from its collapse provided the first extragalactic supernova signal.
Solar neutrinos: Neutrinos produced by nuclear reactions in the Sun's interior. They provide direct evidence about fusion occurring inside the otherwise opaque solar core.
Electromagnetic astronomy: The study of the universe through electromagnetic radiation, from radio waves to gamma rays. Unlike photons, neutrinos can escape dense environments with little absorption or scattering.
Cherenkov radiation: Light emitted when a charged particle travels through a medium faster than light travels through that medium. Neutrino detectors use this light to record charged particles produced by neutrino interactions.
IceCube-170922A: A high-energy neutrino event detected by IceCube in 2017 and associated with the blazar TXS 0506+056. Its association with a flaring blazar helped establish a likely extragalactic neutrino source.
Supernova neutrinos: Neutrinos released in large numbers during the core collapse and explosion of a massive star. They can escape a collapsing star before its visible light emerges.
Gravitational-wave astronomy: The study of cosmic events through ripples in spacetime detected by gravitational-wave observatories. Gravitational waves and neutrinos probe different physical processes and can arrive from the same event.
Neutrino telescope: A detector system designed to observe neutrinos and infer their energies and directions. Large detector arrays make astronomical observations possible despite neutrinos' scarcity.
TXS 0506+056: A blazar in the constellation Orion that produced a prominent gamma-ray flare in 2017. Its flare coincided with IceCube-170922A, linking a specific active galaxy to a neutrino event.

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