Photo: IceCube/NSF

Photo: IceCube/NSF

What neutrinos tell us about the universe

Café and Kosmos on January 18, 2023

Supermassive black holes are among the most mysterious objects in our universe. With a mass of many billions of suns, they sit at the center of galaxies and hold them together in their interior. In particularly active galaxies, they produce some of the brightest cosmic phenomena ever observed in their immediate vicinity. Nevertheless, the physical processes that drive this machine are difficult to observe because of clouds of cosmic dust and extremely strong electromagnetic fields. High-energy neutrinos - so-called ghost particles - are the only messengers that can escape unhindered from this environment and thus elicit its secrets. Now, for the first time, neutrinos measured by the South Pole telescope IceCube give us a glimpse into the interior of the active galaxy Messier 77. Dr. Theo Glauch of the Technical University of Munich will report on the new results at this Cafe & Kosmos evening.