A team of researchers at the South Pole has verified the existence of miniscule particles, cosmic neutrinos. New evidence confirmed a 2013 sighting of cosmic neutrinos by using IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino telescope that detected secondary particles known as ‘muons’. These secondary particles get created after theneutrinos’ interaction with matter, but it is a very rare occasion. The new research has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The particle detector recorded the interactions between massless subatomic particles, neutrinos, with ice. While providing information on the discovery, Olga Botner, spokesperson ofIceCube Collaboration, said cosmic neutrinos can be considered as a key to know about yet unexplored parts of the universe. Their discovery could reveal the origins of the highest energy cosmic rays, Botner added.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has a number of optical sensors under the ice of Antarctic. The telescope is developed to see through the earth to monitor sky over Northern Hemisphere. Here, earth works a filter for the telescope and helps in neglecting background of muons which are created when cosmic rays crash into the planet’s atmosphere.

Francis Halzen, a University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor of physics and the principal investigator of IceCube, said, “Looking for muon neutrinos reaching the detector through the Earth is the way IceCube was supposed to do neutrino astronomy, and it has delivered. This is as close to independent confirmation as one can get with a unique instrument.”