Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna(ANTIA) finds high energy particles from ice

News: NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna(ANITA) have detected high energy particles from ice in Antarctica.

Facts:

  • ANITA instrument: It is a radio telescope to detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray neutrinos from a scientific balloon flying over the continent of Antarctica. 
  • ANITA is also the first NASA observatory for neutrinos of any kind.
  • How does ANITA detect Neutrinos: The ANITA instrument detects these ultra-high energy neutrinos by use of the Askaryan effect. 

Additional Facts:

  • Askaryan Effect: It predicts the production of a coherent radio emission from the cascade of particles produced in a high-energy particle interaction
  • Neutrinos: They are subatomic particles with no electric charge and with a very small mass.They are considered to be the second most abundant particle in the universe after photons or light particles.