Breaking the Cosmic Ice
Scientists have shown that the Earth stops energetic neutrinos, according to data collected from the IceCube array in Antarctica. High-energy neutrino interactions monitored by the IceCube detector, an array of 5,160 basketball-sized optical sensors buried a mile deep in a cubic kilometer of exceptionally-clear ice near the south pole.
Neutrinos are infinitesimally small and nearly massless particles that surround us at any given moment. Roughly one trillion from the Sun pass through a human's eyes every second, and they come in three types (called flavors): electron, muon, and tauon neutrinos, each name corresponding to three charged particles with which they pair. Since they interact so rarely, it's extremely
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The neutrino-interactions analyzed have energies in the trillion-electron-volt, or TeV, range. A mosquito puts out about one TeV. The detected neutrinos' energy ranged from 6.3 TeV to 980 TeV.
Miarecki performed much of the data analysis whilst working toward her PhD as an IceCube researcher. "It's a multidisciplinary idea," she said in a news release. In order to understand if the cross section of neutrinos detected matches Standard Model predictions, the analysis used input from geologists who supplied models of the Earth's interior from seismic studies. With this, scientists were able to compare their data with a simulation of neutrinos passing through the Earth.
In this study, researchers measured the flux of muon neutrinos as a function of their energy and their incoming direction. Neutrinos with higher energies and with incoming directions closer to the North Pole are more likely to interact with matter on their way through Earth. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration
"We created some of the data from seismic data bouncing off of various parts of the Earth," Miarecki told Futurism. "Putting together all the constraints, including the gravitational constriction of the Earth, and you have a good model," she added. The bulk of detected neutrinos mass around the lower range, with the high-energy neutrinos growing scarce until the frequency of their occurrence passes beyond the
How we know what our planet's density is because of over “300 years ago Sir Isaac Newton calculated the Earth's core density by observing the movement of planets and the force of gravity.” Still today, his observations are correct “his observations remain largely correct today, and monitoring of the Earth in space, as well as the behavior of the moon and planets, continues to provide information about the relative density of the Earth's core and its composition.” Consequently, the study of neighboring planets has helped us discover the density of Earth's
On the other hand, the geomagnetic storms have been intensified and enhanced in their frequency as magnetic fields of coronal mass ejections indulges with that of the earth that causes change of direction and leave more radiation and magnetic energy into the environment of the planet earth. Solar Hemispheric Observatory and Solar
The “Miracle on Ice,” where the United States defeated the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York will forever be known as one of the greatest moments in American sports history. This game was about more than just sports though, it signified American strength, even when faced the greatest adversities. The United States was suffering through Vietnam, Watergate, and the wrenching upheavals of the 1960s. Many believe this game was even the beginning of the end for the Cold War. The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in six of the seven previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience
He narrowed his hunt down to a location in Denmark, where he had sent a colleague to perform an iridium analysis test at ("Asteroids and Dinosaurs: Unexpected Twists and an Unfinished Story," n.d.). When the results came back, Alvarez knew that whatever happened had not been a small-scale disaster. Once again, Alvarez was back to asking questions. What caused the increased iridium levels at the KT boundary? Except this time, he realized that his observations supported the ten year old hypothesis that had been proposed by paleontologist Dale Russell and physicist Wallace Tucker ("Asteroids and Dinosaurs: Unexpected Twists and an Unfinished Story," n.d.). They brought up the possibility of a supernova being the cause of dinosaur extinction. Supernovas are known to release high amounts of iridium, so such a hypothesis fit perfectly with Alvarez’s team’s discovery. However, the hope of having found a conclusion was short-lived. Luis Alvarez had mentioned that if said supernova had occurred that it would have released amounts of plutonium which would have been found alongside the iridium; no plutonium was found at either site. After more digging, the team came up with a new hypothesis ("Asteroids and Dinosaurs: Unexpected Twists and an Unfinished Story," n.d.). Perhaps an asteroid had struck Earth towards the end of the Cretaceous period, blowing enough dust into the atmosphere to
Schulz’s article is split into five sections. The first section introduces the readers to Chris Goldfinger, a paleoseismologist at Oregon State University. Goldfinger was at a seismology conference in Kashiwa, Japan when the 2011 Tohoku
produced by all nuclear reactors, so one was able to calculate the amount of krypton being
Much of what is known about the Earth’s nuclear core can be learned from logical, mathematical reasoning. A great deal is understood about radioactive decay, and fission so with basic knowledge of the elemental pieces of the theory it is not difficult to make accurate estimates and predictions about the quantity, and commonality of these processes in the earth. Today the core of the Earth would be an estimated five miles in diameter.
From 1 to 3 kilometers [1.8 miles], we find a smaller effect. And then after 3 kilometers, we were unable to detect an impact.”
UNSWA - University of New South Wales SCI - Faculty of Science PHYS - School of Physics Module 3 (Weeks 5-6) — Life on Earth and in the Solar System PHYS1160-5144_01311
The time coincidence plots CDCT, CDNT and CDCT to select the two charged particles and two photons
of a rich Ir anomaly on a global scale within the K/T boundary layers of both marine and continental facies has been interpreted as highly impressive evidence for an impact origin. Another discovery that may serve as a marker of an event is microspherules. A variety of microsherules have been discovered in the PTB layers of the Meishan section (Xu et al., 1989). The origin of the microspherules could be multiple. They are small circular indentations in the rocks and the most abondent elements are Si or Si-Al. Mircospherules are similar to cosmic dust. Since a large amount of microspherules occurs in a thin layer of PTB layer it can serve as another event marker.<br><br>Maxwell (1989) who got his information from Clark et al. (1986) said that<br><br>The elemental in boundary clays across China suggest that there is a remote possibility that the predominantly illite boundary clay is a remote possibility that the predomonantly illite boundary clay resulted from the alteration of ejecta dust from a comet impact, but the most likely source was ash from a massive volcanic eruption.<br><br>The trace elements suggested that the dust was highly acidic and the ratios of TiO2 and AL2O3 are low enough to support the volcanic dust scenario
Neutrinos, which are quite similar to the electrons, are subatomic particles which come from the disintegration of radioactive substances. They are one of the few particles that make up the entire universe. They are considered the “baby” particles which have very little electric charge. Weak neutrinos can carry very large parts of information from the universe. Neutrinos have all the needed requirements to be considered in astronomy. They have been around since the birth of the universe. According to the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory, there are so many neutrinos that they combine together to sum up to a temperature of 1.9 Kelvin, which is about -271.2 degrees Celsius (All 1).
The solar wind containing these hot gases races toward the edges of the solar system, and smash in to the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere protects the earth by deflecting most of the solar wind around the planet. Trillions of these charged particles mange to get through and project from the North and South poles. Energy released in this fashion excites atoms of nitrogen and oxygen, which in turn emit pulses of colored light. These formations are called an aurora. The aurora borealis, which are visible in Alaska, are a result of this sort of space storm.
Surprisingly, the clay held almost 30 times more iridium than the limestone layers above and below the clay. Similar layers in other parts of the world gave the same results. The conclusion was that a giant meteorite hit the Earth 65 million years ago and had released a large
Apart from gigantic celestial bodies, it is surprising that microscopic subatomic particles inside matter like electrons are also moving in orbits around the nucleus of the atom. These are all energy particles and are responsible for matter formation and destruction.