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Thanks to Neutrino Detector, We Might Get a Good Look At the Next Supernova
sciencehabit writes "The last star to go supernova in the Milky Way—that astronomers know of—exploded in 1604, before Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. But with a neutrino detector now being built within a Japanese mountain that could come online as early as 2016, researchers might be able to do something as yet undone: Make detailed observations of a supernova in our galaxy before it visibly explodes. First, astronomers would be alerted to the unfolding event by the flood of neutrinos generated when a supernova collapses. Within minutes, they could determine the general area of the sky where the explosion would occur, point their infrared telescopes in that direction, and wait for the fireworks. With the new sensor in place, instruments—especially infrared telescopes—would have an almost 100% chance of observing the next supernova in our galaxy, the researchers report."
Boom!
When I read news like this, my lousy programming job that pays 80k a years, seems like a total bullshit, compared to this.
What makes me even sadder...... those super novas are so far away, and might have existed even longer than earth and our solar system.
One day, our sun will go up in flame, and not even a trace of our existence will be left behind.
Concentrated fissionable material produce antineutrinos.
What better way to enlarge the NSA's purview than to let it take a chunk out of the particle physics budget by controlling neutrino detection technology?
It's good that the Japanese are funding this, because at the rate European and US basic research funds are going, I doubt we'll be able to detect much of anything by 2016...
Allahu Akbar Supernova !!!!
There are about 8 comparable telescopes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neutrino_experiments
Which makes me wonder why this one is more likely than any of the others to detect a supernova.
> would have an almost 100% chance of observing
Unless it's during another government shutdown.
Ummm ... have nuetrinos actually been detected yet?
I seem to remember a LOT of attempts in a number of deep dark places around the planet, but can't remember any instance where anybody maintained that they'd actually detected a puppy.
Of course, I may be wrong ... and, if so, would be grateful if someone could point me toward the relevant paper.
Actually, that's what the scientific community already performed in 1987 in some ways. Different labs observed a burst of neutrinos some time before the visible light observations. Kamiokande for sure and IMB, also, observed that burst.
Though, mind you, regarding the tech side of the problem, it's actually pretty much what has been done already with the SWIFT satellite for Gamma-ray bursts.
The problem with neutrinos is their low interaction probability, so it means that you need a gargantuesque-sized detector to have an adequate resolution.
Kamiokande is already huge: just to give an idea of the problem, it contains around 50k tons of pure water. Let's assume you just have 95% of water ( and 5% of impurities, let's say some postdocs in charge of cleaning the apparatus drowned), that's still about 15,9E32 molecules of water, which only led to finding the burst of some 11 neutrinos for supernova 1987a.
Physics... meh!
Or as Randall Munroe would say: "Science. It works, bitches."
The article is technically accurate but this isn't anything new. And yes, neutrinos will arrive before the light from an exploding supernova. There is already a large detector filled with heavy water that can do this in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. It has been around for a decade. And this is one of the things it is advertised to do.
http://www.snolab.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Neutrino_Observatory
What do you mean "indirectly"? We detect them via their direct interaction with matter. This is the same as it is for every other particle that we can detect. The only difference is that neutrinos do it far less often than most others.
There are several features that you need to detect supernovae with neutrinos: good direction resolution, large enough mass to detect multiple neutrinos from the supernova and low enough energy sensitivity. Detectors like IceCube have a huge mass (1 km^3 of ice) and good directional accuracy but they cannot detect the low energy neutrinos from a supernova. Other detectors in the list use chemical methods (neutrinos will cause inverse beta decay) but these have the mass and energy sensitivity but give no directional information. This is the first experiment to have the right mix of all the parameters.
Kinda sorta. Their existence has been inferred by experimental results.
The existence of every single particle we know of has been inferred from experimental results: neutrinos are no different. So the correct answer is "Yes, neutrinos have been detected" unless you are going to use the same uncertainty for things like the quarks, muons, Higgs boson etc. etc.
I guess astronomers were tired of 10 year old kids repeatedly discovering supernovas before they did.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Godwinned within an hour of posting. On an article about a fucking neutrino detector. Way to go, guys.
The last star to go supernova in the Milky Way—that astronomers know of—exploded in 1604
Only out by about 20,000 years.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Well, okay, unless you're talking about the reference frame of one of the photons from the supernova, in which case, spot on.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I'd be more interested in someone making a neutrino detector sensitive enough to detect the silicon burning stage just before the supernova explodes. That would give a day of warning.
Past performance is indicative of future results.
Only out by about 20,000 years.
What reference frame are you using? There's no global time reference. I use Earth's. Since everyone here is probably on Earth, that seems like a good one. Why do you want to use a different one? It doesn't make you look smart.
I use Earth's.
So then you'd agree with me. The supernova occurred 20,000 light years away and the light reached Earth in 1604.
The only reference frame in which the supernova also exploded in 1604 is that of a photon making the trip. To us on Earth, it happened as long ago as it takes for the light to reach us (ignoring the negligible expansion of space between the two points in that time).
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Leaving aside the quibbles about the date of the explosion compared to the date of the light reaching the Earth, this still isn't true. There was likely a supernova in the disc of the galaxy (whose light reached Earth) in the 1870s or 1880s. But since it was on the far side of a dense gas/ dust cloud, it wasn't visible. It's only in the last few years that IR telescopes and radio telescopes have managed to detect the expanding debris cloud, and monitor it's increasing size, to determine the approximate date of the explosion.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"