Latest news with #Wissel
The Star
8 hours ago
- Science
- The Star
What lies beneath the ice? Antarctic mystery deepens with 'strange radio pulses'
Antarctica's vast ice sheet conceals a world of mysteries, from ancient river-carved landscapes to unexplained radio pulses. — Cover Images/Zuma Press/dpa Mountains, sub-glacial lakes, hidden valleys, even remnants of lost civilisations: what lies under Antarctica's vast 2,000-metre thick ice sheet has long been a mystery akin to the depths of the ocean or the dark side of the moon. As big as the United States and India combined, much of the frozen continent is off-limits to the handful of hardy visitors permitted each year, adding to the mystery. The sense of enigma has been heightened by the revelation that 'strange radio pulses' detected in the ice defy explanation after almost a decade of trying to figure them out. First picked up in 2016 by instrument-laden balloons flown by Nasa's Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (Anita) team, the inexplicable 'anomalies' appear to be a 'form of radio waves,' according to researchers from Penn State University (PSU). But what makes the pulses anomalous is that they 'appeared to be coming from below the horizon' – an orientation that 'cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics,' the researchers confirmed. 'The radio waves that we detected nearly a decade ago were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,' said PSU's Stephanie Wissel, who was part of the Nasa Anita team. In other words, the pulses should have been absorbed by rock – thousands of kilometres of it going by the angle of the pulses – long before the balloons could detect them. 'It's an interesting problem because we still don't actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are,' Wissel said. Funded by the US Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation, the PSU researchers were part of a team made up of dozens of scientists that worked at the world's biggest cosmic ray detector – the Pierre Auger Observatory on the western Argentine plain – to try solve the riddle. The team's attempt to decode the mystery featured in the journal Physical Review Letters in late March and was publicised in a statement released by PSU in mid-June. In mid-March, a multinational team of scientists including representatives of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) published what they described as 'the most detailed map yet' of sub-glacial Antarctica. Showing the shape of the continent were it ice-free, the map showed a tapestry of islands, mountains and valleys and revealed the ice's thickest point to be an approximately 4,700-metre section filling an unnamed canyon. – dpa
Scottish Sun
18-06-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
‘Mystery pulse' spotted 25 miles ABOVE Antarctica is ‘unknown to science' as baffled experts say they ‘don't understand'
The mysterious radio waves were being emitted at a steep angle below the ice SURPR-ICE! 'Mystery pulse' spotted 25 miles ABOVE Antarctica is 'unknown to science' as baffled experts say they 'don't understand' STRANGE radio pulses detected roughly 25 miles (40km) above Antarctica could be the mark of a new cosmic particle, according to a new study. This rare signal was first detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) in 2006, a series of tools floating over icy continent carried by balloons. Advertisement 3 The now-retired ANITA experiment aimed to detect ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos - or "ghost particles" - and other cosmic rays Credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State. 3 ANITA is a series of tools that floated over Antarctica carried by balloons Credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State. The now-retired ANITA experiment aimed to detect ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos - or "ghost particles" - and other cosmic rays as they rain down on Earth from space. While ANITA usually picks up cosmic signals that bounce off the ice, this new radio pulse came from beneath the horizon and under the ice sheet. Its orientation cannot currently be explained by particle physics, a study in the journal Physical Review Letters wrote. A similar event was recorded in 2014, and it has continued to baffle scientists. Advertisement The mysterious radio waves were being emitted at a steep angle below the ice, suggesting they had to pass through thousands of miles of rock before reaching ANITA. All those obstacles would typically leave a radio pulse too faint to be detectable - but not this signal. "It's an interesting problem, because we still don't actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are," ANITA team member and Penn State University researcher Stephanie Wissel said in a statement. "What we do know is that they're most likely not representing neutrinos." Advertisement Scientists have ruled out neutrinos, the most common particle in the universe. Neutrinos are unofficially known as "ghost particles" due to the fact that they don't have any mass or carry any charge. "You have a billion neutrinos passing through your thumbnail at any moment, but neutrinos don't really interact," added Wissel. Inside abandoned Antarctic clifftop 'ghost station' where Soviet boffins battled -90C gales 1000s of miles from anywhere "So, this is the double-edged sword problem. If we detect them, it means they have traveled all this way without interacting with anything else. Advertisement "We could be detecting a neutrino coming from the edge of the observable Universe." Scientists suspected that a supernova erupting in space could have coughed a slew of neutrinos in Earth's direction. An international team of researchers attempting to solve the mystery conducted a series of simulations to see if the 2006 and 2014 events align with any significant cosmic events, with data from the the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. There was a supernova that aligned with the signals captured in 2014, but not the 2006 event. Advertisement So there is no clear indication that this cosmic event is what caused the bizarre radio waves. What scientists have done, however, is narrow down their set of explanations. "My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don't fully understand, but we certainly explored several of those, and we haven't been able to find any of those yet either," said Wissel. "So, right now, it's one of these long-standing mysteries, and I'm excited that when we fly [Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations], we'll have better sensitivity. Advertisement "In principle, we should pick up more anomalies, and maybe we'll actually understand what they are. "We also might detect neutrinos, which would in some ways be a lot more exciting."
The Irish Sun
18-06-2025
- Science
- The Irish Sun
‘Mystery pulse' spotted 25 miles ABOVE Antarctica is ‘unknown to science' as baffled experts say they ‘don't understand'
STRANGE radio pulses detected roughly 25 miles (40km) above Antarctica could be the mark of a new cosmic particle, according to a new study. This rare signal was first detected by the Advertisement 3 The now-retired ANITA experiment aimed to detect ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos - or "ghost particles" - and other cosmic rays Credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State. 3 ANITA is a series of tools that floated over Antarctica carried by balloons Credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State. The now-retired ANITA experiment aimed to detect ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic neutrinos - or "ghost particles" - and other cosmic rays as they rain down on Earth from space. While ANITA usually picks up cosmic signals that bounce off the ice, this new radio pulse came from beneath the horizon and under the ice sheet. Its orientation cannot currently be explained by particle physics, a A similar event was recorded in 2014, and it has continued to baffle scientists. Advertisement READ MORE ON ANTARCTICA The mysterious radio waves were being emitted at a steep angle below the ice, suggesting they had to pass through thousands of miles of rock before reaching ANITA. All those obstacles would typically leave a radio pulse too faint to be detectable - but not this signal. "It's an interesting problem, because we still don't actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are," ANITA team member and Penn State University researcher Stephanie Wissel "What we do know is that they're most likely not representing neutrinos." Advertisement Most read in Science Exclusive Scientists have ruled out neutrinos, the most common particle in the universe. Neutrinos are unofficially known as "ghost particles" due to the fact that they don't have any mass or carry any charge. "You have a billion neutrinos passing through your thumbnail at any moment, but neutrinos don't really interact," added Wissel. Inside abandoned Antarctic clifftop 'ghost station' where Soviet boffins battled -90C gales 1000s of miles from anywhere "So, this is the double-edged sword problem. If we detect them, it means they have traveled all this way without interacting with anything else. Advertisement " We could be detecting a neutrino coming from the edge of the observable Universe." Scientists suspected that a supernova erupting in space could have coughed a slew of neutrinos in Earth's direction. An international team of researchers attempting to solve the mystery conducted a series of simulations to see if the 2006 and 2014 events align with any significant cosmic events, with data from the the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina . There was a supernova that aligned with the signals captured in 2014, but not the 2006 event. Advertisement So there is no clear indication that this cosmic event is what caused the bizarre radio waves. What scientists have done, however, is narrow down their set of explanations. "My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don't fully understand, but we certainly explored several of those, and we haven't been able to find any of those yet either," said Wissel. "So, right now, it's one of these long-standing mysteries, and I'm excited that when we fly [Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations], we'll have better sensitivity. Advertisement "In principle, we should pick up more anomalies, and maybe we'll actually understand what they are. "We also might detect neutrinos, which would in some ways be a lot more exciting." 3 The mysterious radio waves were being emitted at a steep angle below the ice, suggesting they had to pass through thousands of miles of rock before reaching ANITA Credit: Getty
Hindustan Times
18-06-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Mystery signals detected in Antarctica evoke hope of finding new particles: Report
Scientists have recently detected a pattern of strange signals in the sky above Antarctica. It defies current physics models and could represent a new particle, scientists told Discovered by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, the signal pulses were found at about 40 kilometers above the surface of the Earth. According to a report by The Pennsylvania State University(PSU), Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) comprises ranging instruments that are flown on balloons. Designed in a specialized manner to detect radio waves or subatomic particles from cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere, ANITA experiment balloons hover high above Antarctica skies. 'We use radio detectors to try to build really, really large telescopes,' said Stephanie Wissel, associate professor of physics, astronomy and astrophysics who worked on the ANITA team searching for signals from elusive particles called neutrinos. Neutrinos are a type of subatomic particle with no charge. They are abundant in the universe. Usually emitted by high-energy sources like the sun or major cosmic events like supernovas or even the Big Bang, there are neutrino signals everywhere, says the report. Wissel has designed experiments to spot neutrinos over Antarctica and South America. The new study provides enhanced context to a nearly decade-old results. Between 2016 and 2018, an ongoing ANITA experiment in Antarctica observed a series of unusual radio signals, according to an international research group that included scientists from Penn State. According to a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team said that the signal pulses had to pass through thousands of kilometers of rock before reaching the detector, that is up in the sky. This would weaken or completely stop any neutrinos or cosmic rays. The signals that were recently detected were however still strong, possibly implying that something unusual was underway. 'The radio waves that we detected nearly a decade ago were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,' Wissel from PSU added context to the journal. Wissel further explained one possibility whereby unknown radio signal behaviour could be detected in icy or near-horizon conditions. 'My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don't fully understand,' she said. 'Right now it's one of those long-standing mysteries,' she added. As the angle of these newly detected signals is sharper than current models of physics allow, the backtracking process isn't possible in this case, said a report by Other neutrino detectors like the IceCube Experiment and the Pierre Auger Observatory could not detect anything that could explain the new signals and their upward-oriented air shower, which defies the usual rule. The ANITA researchers have termed the newly found signals as "anomalous," affirming that they were not caused by neutrinos.
Time of India
17-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Mysterious pulses buzzing beneath Antarctica? What is happening inside the Earth?
One of the most remote and least understood regions on Earth is Antarctica, which remains under the thick cover of the snow all year round. And this time, scientists have come across a cosmic mystery that challenges everything we thought we knew about particle physics. While the icy continent is known for its extreme conditions, it's now the center of an anomaly that could open a new chapter in astrophysics. High above the frozen region, a mission is stationed that is designed to listen for radio signals generated by high-energy neutrinos hitting the Antarctic ice. These neutrinos are some of the most elusive particles in the universe, often passing through matter without leaving a trace. But during this mission, which is known as ANITA, it detected something entirely unexpected, which were some different radio signals that appeared to be coming from deep within the Earth itself. Unlike expected signals from space-borne neutrinos, these mysterious pulses appear to be rising from below the horizon, completely going against the known models of how particles move through the Earth. What is ANITA? ANITA, a high-altitude balloon experiment flown over Antarctica, was originally designed to detect radio waves produced when cosmic neutrinos collide with the Antarctic ice. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like CVS Wants to Hide 87¢ Generic Viagra – Truth Inside Health Alliance by Friday Plans Learn More Undo These ultra-high-energy neutrinos are expected to come from above, not below. So when the team noticed signals arriving at steep angles, up to 30 degrees below the surface, it didn't make to physicist Stephanie Wissel, who is one of the authors of the paper Search for the Anomalous Events Detected by ANITA Using the Pierre Auger Observatory, 'The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice. ' She added, 'It's an interesting problem because we still don't actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are, but what we do know is that they're most likely not representing neutrinos,' as quoted by the Newsweek. To reach ANITA from below, any particle would have to travel through thousands of miles of solid Earth. That kind of journey would usually weaken or completely stop any known particles like neutrinos or cosmic rays. Yet the signals were still strong, which added to the clues that something unusual was happening. Wissel suggested that one possibility could involve some unknown radio signal behaviour in icy or near-horizon conditions. 'My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don't fully understand,' she said. 'But we certainly explored several of those—and we haven't been able to find any of those yet either. So, right now it's one of those long-standing mysteries. ' To get more answers, Wissel and her team are developing a new detector called the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations, or PUEO. The next-generation system will be even more sensitive to these strange radio bursts. Neutrinos themselves are notoriously difficult to detect. 'You have a billion neutrinos passing through your thumbnail at any moment, but neutrinos don't really interact,' she explained to Newsweek. So, capturing even one event could offer valuable insights into the universe's most distant and energetic processes. For now, the origin of the mysterious signals remains unknown, but the scientific world is watching closely.
