NASA's Fermi Links Cosmic Neutrino to Monster Black Hole

  • Released Thursday, July 12, 2018
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The discovery of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22, 2017, sent astronomers on a chase to locate its source -- a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. Watch to learn more.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Music: "Hidden Tides" from Killer Tracks

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

For the first time ever, scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found the source of a high-energy neutrino from outside our galaxy. This neutrino travelled 3.7 billion years at nearly light speed before being detected on Earth -- farther than any other neutrino we know the origin of.

High-energy neutrinos are hard-to-catch particles that scientists think are created by the most powerful events in the cosmos, like galaxy mergers and material falling onto supermassive black holes. They travel a whisker shy of the speed of light and rarely interact with other matter, so they can travel unimpeded across billions of light-years.

On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected signs of a neutrino striking the Antarctic ice with an energy of about 300 trillion electron volts -- more than 45 times the energy achievable in the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. This high energy strongly suggested that the neutrino had to be from beyond our solar system. Backtracking the path through IceCube indicated where in the sky the neutrino came from, and automated alerts notified astronomers around the globe to search this region for flares or outbursts that could be associated with the event.

Data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope revealed enhanced gamma-ray emission from a well-known active galaxy at the time the neutrino arrived. This active galaxy is a type called a blazar, where a supermassive black hole with millions to billions of times the Sun’s mass that blasts particle jets outward in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. Blazars are especially bright and active because one of these jets happens to point almost directly toward Earth.

Fermi showed that at the time of the neutrino detection, the blazar TXS 0506+056 was the most active it had been in a decade.

The discovery is a giant leap forward in a growing field called multimessenger astronomy, where new cosmic signals like neutrinos and gravitational waves are definitively linked to sources that emit light.

For the first time ever, scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found the source of a high-energy neutrino from outside our galaxy. This neutrino travelled 3.7 billion years at nearly light speed before being detected on Earth -- farther than any other neutrino we know the origin of. High-energy neutrinos are hard-to-catch particles that scientists think are created by the most powerful events in the cosmos, like galaxy mergers and material falling onto supermassive black holes. They travel a whisker shy of the speed of light and rarely interact with other matter, so they can travel unimpeded across billions of light-years. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected signs of a neutrino striking the Antarctic ice with an energy of about 300 trillion electron volts -- more than 45 times the energy achievable in the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. This high energy strongly suggested that the neutrino had to be from beyond our solar system. Backtracking the path through IceCube indicated where in the sky the neutrino came from, and automated alerts notified astronomers around the globe to search this region for flares or outbursts that could be associated with the event. Data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope revealed enhanced gamma-ray emission from a well-known active galaxy at the time the neutrino arrived. This active galaxy is a type called a blazar, where a supermassive black hole with millions to billions of times the Sun’s mass that blasts particle jets outward in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. Blazars are especially bright and active because one of these jets happens to point almost directly toward Earth. Fermi showed that at the time of the neutrino detection, the blazar TXS 0506+056 was the most active it had been in a decade. The discovery is a giant leap forward in a growing field called multimessenger astronomy, where new cosmic signals like neutrinos and gravitational waves are definitively linked to sources that emit light.

On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, represented in this illustration by strings of sensors under the ice, detected a high-energy neutrino that appeared to come from deep space. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (top left) pinpointed the source as a supermassive black hole in a galaxy located about 4 billion light-years away. It is the first source of a high-energy neutrino from outside our galaxy ever identified.

Credit: NASA/Fermi and Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University

This visualization shows a decade of Fermi-detected gamma rays from the blazar TXS 0506+056. Each gamma ray is shown as an expanding circle whose maximum size, color -- from white (low) to magenta (high) -- and associated tone indicate its energy. Unpredcedented flaring activity began in April 2017 and continued to Sept. 22, 2017, when a high-energy neutrino was detected at the South Pole.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration., Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida/SYSTEM Sounds

Complete transcript available.

Press conference version. Fermi-detected gamma rays from TXS 0506+056 are shown as expanding circles. Their maximum size, color -- from white (low) to magenta (high) -- and associated tone indicate the energy of each ray. The first sequence shows typical emission; the second shows the 2017 flare leading to the neutrino detection. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collab., Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida/SYSTEM Sounds

Complete transcript available.

Watch this video on the NASA.gov Video YouTube channel.

This image sequence begins with a wide view of the constellation Orion in visible light, then transitions to the same view as seen by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, where brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The blazar TXS 0506+056 appears as Fermi has seen it for most of the past decade. The final image shows the blazar during an 8-month-long flaring episode that began in April 2017 and continued up to the discovery of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22. During this period, the blazar produced more gamma rays in a given time period than Fermi had seen from it over the previous 10 years.

Credit: Axel Mellinger (Central Michigan University) and NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Unlabeled version. This image sequence begins with a wide view of the constellation Orion in visible light, then transitions to the same view as seen by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, where brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The blazar TXS 0506+056 (bright source, top center) appears as Fermi has seen it for most of the past decade. The final image shows the blazar during an 8-month-long flaring episode that began in April 2017 and continued up to the discovery of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22. During this period, the blazar produced more gamma rays in a given time period than Fermi had seen from it over the previous 10 years.

Credit: Axel Mellinger (Central Michigan University) and NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Labeled version. This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts across a broad region centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected during 8 months prior to the onset of the blazar's flaring activity in April 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The brightest sources in the scene are in our own galaxy: the Crab Nebula and its pulsar (top center) and the supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula (top left).Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Labeled version. This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts across a broad region centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected during 8 months prior to the onset of the blazar's flaring activity in April 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The brightest sources in the scene are in our own galaxy: the Crab Nebula and its pulsar (top center) and the supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula (top left).

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts across a broad region centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected during 8 months prior to the onset of the blazar's flaring activity in April 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The brightest sources in the scene are in our own galaxy: the Crab Nebula and its pulsar (top center) and the supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula (top left).Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts across a broad region centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected during 8 months prior to the onset of the blazar's flaring activity in April 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. The brightest sources in the scene are in our own galaxy: the Crab Nebula and its pulsar (top center) and the supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula (top left).

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Labeled version. This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts in a wide view centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected for 4 months before and after IceCube's detection of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22, 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. At the time of the detection, TXS 0506+056 was brighter in gamma rays than it had been in the previous decade. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Labeled version. This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts in a wide view centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected for 4 months before and after IceCube's detection of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22, 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. At the time of the detection, TXS 0506+056 was brighter in gamma rays than it had been in the previous decade.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts in a wide view centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected for 4 months before and after IceCube's detection of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22, 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. At the time of the detection, TXS 0506+056 was brighter in gamma rays than it had been in the previous decade. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This image shows the sky in gamma rays with energies greater than 1 billion electron volts in a wide view centered on the black-hole-powered galaxy TXS 0506+056, located about 4 billion light-years away. The image shows the number of gamma rays detected for 4 months before and after IceCube's detection of a high-energy neutrino on Sept. 22, 2017. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. At the time of the detection, TXS 0506+056 was brighter in gamma rays than it had been in the previous decade.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Version with angular scale. This image of the sky centered on the blazar TXS 0506+056 includes the constellations Orion and Taurus. The view covers the same sky area as the Fermi images above.Credit: Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University

Version with angular scale. This image of the sky centered on the blazar TXS 0506+056 includes the constellations Orion and Taurus. The view covers the same sky area as the Fermi images above.

Credit: Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University

This image of the sky centered on the blazar TXS 0506+056 includes the constellations Orion and Taurus. The view covers the same sky area as the Fermi images above.Credit: Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University

This image of the sky centered on the blazar TXS 0506+056 includes the constellations Orion and Taurus. The view covers the same sky area as the Fermi images above.

Credit: Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University

Animation of a neutrino oscillation, where a neutrino changes characteristics over time.

For More Information

See https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-fermi-traces-source-of-cosmic-neutrino-to-monster-black-hole

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, individual items should be credited as indicated above.

This page was originally published on Thursday, July 12, 2018.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:23 AM EST.

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