Fountain of high-energy particles erupting from the ice found in Antarctica through ANITA
Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Science and Technology
In News:
Researchers using NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) have found a fountain of high-energy particles erupting from the ice in Antarctica.
This could be proof of a parallel universe.
Important value additions:
Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA)
The ANITA instrument is a radio telescope to detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray neutrinos from a scientific balloon flying over the continent of Antarctica.
It is the first NASA observatory for neutrinos of any kind.
Neutrinos are of great interest to astrophysicists as they are the only particle that can reach earth unattenuated (not weakened) at all energies.
It detects these ultra-high energy neutrinos by use of the Askaryan effect.
This effect predicts the production of a coherent radio emission from the cascade of particles produced in a high-energy particle interaction.
ANITA-I was launched in 2006–07 and ANITA-IV was launched in 2016.