3/03/2006

Neutrinos

Truth is stranger than fiction. For example, who knew that tiny, energetic, and virtually undetectable particles (with neither mass nor electric charge) passed through your body every second? How many? About a hundred trillion.

WHAT?!?!

Ok, so why the big fuss?

"Because the ability to pass through drifting interstellar crud allows neutrinos to carry messages from the far reaches of the universe. And because some neutrinos are fabulously energetic. They carry a bigger punch than even the most intense gamma ray. That means they must originate in someplace exciting.

Just as you can't pull a hot coal from a cold fire, you shouldn't get "hot" neutrinos from "cool" sources like ordinary stars. These neutrinos, in other words, may be bringing signals of some of the hippest, blazingly hot stuff in the sky -- neutron stars (defined), active galactic centers (defined), and exploding stars, or supernovas." (whyfiles.org)

(Yes, I will spare you my space travel/Jinn theories.)

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Neutrino
The Ghost Particle
Neutrinos Matter