![]() ![]() Cosmic rays - atomic nuclei that have been accelerated to near the speed of light - were first seen in balloon experiments about 100 years ago. “But soon it was obvious that they were coming from very far away, cosmological distances.” Around the same time, astronomers detected neutrinos, which are subatomic particles with no charge and very little mass, emerging from the Sun. “People thought the Russians were making nuclear explosions out in space,” says Mészáros. ![]() They found plenty of gamma-ray sources, but to their surprise, they weren’t coming from Earth, but from all around the sky. government launched satellites carrying detectors for gamma rays - the most powerful photons - to track Russian nuclear tests. The roots of multi-messenger astronomy date to the 1960s, when the U.S. Thanks to big instruments, big collaborations, and big data, they finally have the practical tools to interpret the cosmic detritus constantly raining down upon the Earth. Today, astronomers stand on the brink of a new era of multi-messenger astronomy - one they have been awaiting for decades and that is already providing new insights. Gradually, scientists have unlocked the ability to detect them all. “They send out accelerated particles, photons, and waves in space-time.”Īstronomers call these messengers, and there are four types: photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves. “All the big, interesting events - like supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and mergers - are disruptive,” says Péter Mészáros, a theoretical astrophysicist at Penn State. Telescopes, photographic plates, and digital detectors were all developed to collect, magnify, and capture that signal.īut visible light isn’t the only message the cosmos is sending us. For centuries, astronomers studying the stars were limited to information from visible light. ![]()
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