IceCube Collaboration/U.S. National Science Foundation (Lily Le & Shawn Johnson)/ESO (S. Brunier)
We’ve learned to observe the Milky Way in a lot of different ways. Of course, traditional telescopes use visible light—but those only allow us to see so far out. Eventually, objects are too far away and obstacles like gas and dust obstruct our views. That’s why we use different, more powerful instruments.
For example, the James Webb Space Telescope uses infrared to peer into the vast cosmos—to powerful effect. However, even the JWST has its limits. At a certain point, there’s only so much we can see using light alone.
However, there’s a subatomic particle out there born out of some of the most chaotic and extreme astronomical events out there that scientists believe could open the doors for a whole new way of looking at space: the neutrino, or more colloquially known as the “ghost particle.” It’s called such because it’s small. In fact, neutrinos are so small and so ubiquitous that, without you realizing it, 100 trillion neutrinos are passing through your body right now.