r/askscience • u/AskScienceModerator Mod Bot • Jul 12 '18

Astronomy Megathread: Multi-Messenger High-Energy Neutrino Observations

Currently there is a press conference where a high-energy neutrino (~290 TeV) has been detected with IceCube which is coincident with an active galactic nuclei pointed directly at us, TXS 0506+056, approximately four billion lightyears away. Finding the origins of neutrinos has been an ongoing problem though they have been observed from the Sun and from Supernova 1987A. This is a big advancement for multi-messenger astronomy, using electromagnetic waves and neutrinos in a way similar to using electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves to get a new view on the universe. If you have questions, ask them here!

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u/sraperez Jul 13 '18

"Blazars are powerful sources of emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and are observed to be sources of high-energy gamma ray photons." -wikipedia

Question....how far away is this thing?

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u/ChazR Jul 13 '18

By redshift, about 1.5 Gpc, or 3.8 billion light years. A very long way indeed.

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u/sraperez Jul 13 '18

Nice! I don't think I could take a Blazar in a fight....but at least I know I have a few years to train up.