Neutrino astronomy is the branch of astronomy that gathers information about astronomical objects by observing and studying neutrinos emitted by them with the help of neutrino detectors in special Earth observatories. It is an emerging field in astroparticle physics providing insights into the high-energy and non-thermal processes in the universe.
An optical module from a neutrino telescope. Neutrino telescopes consist of hundreds to thousands of optical modules distributed over a large volume.
The proton-proton fusion chain that occurs within the Sun. This process is responsible for the majority of the Sun's energy.
The interior of the Earth as we know it. Currently, our information comes only from seismic data. Neutrinos would be an independent check on this data
A neutrino detector is a physics apparatus which is designed to study neutrinos. Because neutrinos only weakly interact with other particles of matter, neutrino detectors must be very large to detect a significant number of neutrinos. Neutrino detectors are often built underground, to isolate the detector from cosmic rays and other background radiation. The field of neutrino astronomy is still very much in its infancy – the only confirmed extraterrestrial sources as of 2018 are the Sun and the supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. Another likely source is the blazar TXS 0506+056 about 3.7 billion light years away. Neutrino observatories will "give astronomers fresh eyes with which to study the universe".
The inside of the MiniBooNE neutrino detector
An illustration of the Antares neutrino detector deployed under water.
