{"id":505083,"date":"2026-06-17T23:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505083\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T23:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T23:26:11","slug":"tracing-a-neutrino-ghost-to-distant-shadow-blaster-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/505083\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracing a neutrino ghost to distant \u201cshadow blaster\u201d galaxy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Left: the field around the gravitationally lensed galaxy nicknamed \u201cShadow Blaster.\u201d This galaxy lies 11 billion light-years away and sits just behind the bright red galaxy at the center of this image.<\/p>\n

Center: a close-up of the gravitational lens in which the red foreground galaxy is causing the light from the more distant Shadow Blaster galaxy to bend around it, creating multiple distorted images of the galaxy that appear as yellow arcs.<\/p>\n

Right: a close-up of the gravitationally lensed Shadow Blaster galaxy.<\/p>\n

These images were captured with the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab.<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)<\/p>\n

Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)<\/p>\n

Acknowledgment: PI: Yuji Urata (MITOS Science Co., LTD.)<\/p>\n

Neutrinos<\/a>\u00a0are one of the fundamental particles of the Universe. They live a ghostly existence with no electric charge, very little mass, and extremely few interactions with matter. They are also the most abundant particles with mass in the Universe, and can be created through a variety of processes, such as the decay of heavy particles, nuclear reactions in the Sun, and the explosions of stars.<\/p>\n

Instruments on Earth have detected high-energy neutrinos arriving from space since the 1960s, and identifying their origin has been a long-standing challenge in astronomy. While scientists have identified a small number of nearby neutrino sources\u00a0[1]<\/a>, they cannot account for the total amount of neutrinos our instruments measure arriving from across the Universe, referred to as the cosmic neutrino background. Astronomers, therefore, suspect that other major source populations exist but remain hidden.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0published today in\u00a0Nature Astronomy, a team led by Yuji Urata of MITOS Science Co., LTD. in Taiwan presents the analysis of a new neutrino source candidate \u2014 an extremely bright galaxy, JCMT0402\u22120424, nicknamed \u201cShadow Blaster.\u201d This galaxy is located about 11 billion light-years away, has trillions of times the luminosity of the Sun in the infrared, and may provide the long-sought link between high-energy neutrino production and distant star-forming galaxies.<\/p>\n

The discovery was made in part using observations from the\u00a0Gemini North telescope<\/a>, one half of the\u00a0International Gemini Observatory<\/a>, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF<\/a>) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. The study also utilized observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT<\/a>), operated by the East Asian Observatory, and the Submillimeter Array (SMA<\/a>), a joint operation between the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. All three of these telescopes are located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai\u2018i.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the NSF\u00a0IceCube Neutrino Observatory<\/a>\u00a0in Antarctica alerted the scientific community to a high-energy neutrino event, dubbed IC 210922A, coming from a region of space in the direction of the constellation\u00a0Eridanus<\/a>. This alert triggered rapid follow-up observations across the electromagnetic spectrum to search for a counterpart signal that, if detected, could help identify the neutrino\u2019s source.<\/p>\n

Multiple teams of scientists conducted follow-up observations using a variety of telescopes and instruments. However, they all reported no convincing gamma-ray, X-ray, or optical counterpart, nor any gamma-ray burst, supernova, or\u00a0tidal disruption event<\/a>\u00a0that could be associated with the alert\u00a0[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then, a couple of days after the initial alert, Urata and his team initiated observations with JCMT and SMA and discovered Shadow Blaster, whose location and brightness made it a promising candidate for the source of the signal. To investigate this galaxy further, the team organized follow-up observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA<\/a>), managed for North America by the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and they discovered that Shadow Blaster is located behind a strong\u00a0gravitational lens<\/a>\u00a0[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to this lensing effect, the team would be able to study the internal structure of Shadow Blaster, which would otherwise be too distant and too faint to resolve in such detail. However, to use the lensing effect correctly and to understand how much the lens amplified the neutrino signal, they first needed to know the distance, nature, and mass distribution of the foreground galaxy. To decipher these details, they used two powerful instruments on Gemini North: the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS<\/a>) and the Gemini Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (GNIRS<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combined GMOS and GNIRS data helped us measure the distance to the lensing galaxy and determine that it is a massive elliptical galaxy. This information was crucial for estimating the lens mass distribution and constructing a model of the gravitational lens,\u201d\u00a0says Urata.<\/p>\n

Combining the lens model with the ALMA imaging data revealed that the central region of Shadow Blaster contains an extremely compact core that is densely packed with gas and dust and forming new stars at an intense rate. Theoretical models predict that such an extreme environment can act as a natural particle accelerator, where energetic particles repeatedly collide with gas and produce neutrinos. Additionally, Shadow Blaster does not display any characteristics of possessing an active black hole. This strongly suggests that high-energy neutrinos can be produced not only by spectacular black-hole jets as scientists have observed in nearby galaxies, but also by the intense, densely packed star formation that is common in very distant galaxies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis breakthrough shows how particle detectors and telescopes become far more impactful when they work together, opening a powerful ‘multi-messenger’ window on the Universe,\u201d\u00a0says Martin Still, Program Director, NSF Office of Research Infrastructure.\u00a0\u201cBy combining signals from particles and light, scientists can explore distant cosmic environments and events in unprecedented detail \u2014 revealing phenomena that were once only theoretical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 10 billion years ago, the Universe was populated with galaxies like Shadow Blaster that were actively forming stars. During this epoch, galaxies were theoretically producing large numbers of\u00a0cosmic rays<\/a>, which are high-energy streams of particles that can generate neutrinos. Yet obtaining observational evidence that links an individual neutrino event to such a distant galaxy has been extremely difficult since these galaxies are very far away and often deeply hidden behind thick layers of dust. Shadow Blaster’s serendipitous location behind a gravitational lens makes finding this observational evidence much easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cShadow Blaster possesses the kind of dense, gas-rich environment that theoretical models have long suggested could efficiently produce high-energy neutrinos,\u201d\u00a0says Urata. Combined with the absence of any more compelling counterpart despite extensive follow-up searches, Shadow Blaster is the most plausible candidate for the source of IC 210922A.\u00a0\u201cIf confirmed, Shadow Blaster would be the first-ever individual dusty star-forming galaxy directly linked to a high-energy neutrino event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compact star-forming galaxies like Shadow Blaster may be numerous throughout the Universe. As a population, they may therefore contribute a significant fraction of the high-energy neutrino background that fills the cosmos.\u00a0\u201cOur analysis suggests that this population could contribute up to roughly 20% of the observed diffuse neutrino background measured by IceCube,\u201d\u00a0says Urata.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

[1] Astrophysical neutrino sources, or candidate source associations, that have been identified include the Sun and Supernova 1987A at lower energies, and, at high energies, the blazar TXS 0506+056, the active galaxy Messier 77, the active galaxy PKS 1424+240, and diffuse emission from the plane of the Milky Way. Candidate high-energy associations have also been reported with tidal disruption events such as AT2019dsg and AT2019fdr.<\/p>\n

[2] Facilities used for follow-up observations: NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, ANTARES neutrino telescope, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Zwicky Transient Facility, High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory, and the Department of Energy-funded\u00a0DESI Transients Survey<\/a>. In particular, DESI \u201cspare fibers\u201d \u2014 fibers that can\u2019t be matched to targets from the main DESI program on a given pointing \u2014 obtained spectra for 249 galaxies within the IceCube localization region.<\/p>\n

[3] Gravitational lensing occurs when a very massive foreground galaxy bends spacetime, acting as a cosmic magnifying glass that enlarges and distorts the image of a more distant galaxy behind it. In this case, the gravitational lens amplified the brightness of Shadow Blaster from 2.7 trillion to 33 trillion times the luminosity of the Sun in infrared light.<\/p>\n

More information<\/p>\n

This research is presented in a paper titled \u201cCompact dusty starbursts at cosmic noon linked to high-energy neutrinos,\u201d appearing in\u00a0Nature Astronomy. DOI:\u00a010.1038\/s41550-026-02884-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team is composed of Y. Urata (MITOS Science Co., LTD\/National Central University, Taiwan), K. Huang (Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan), B. Hatsukade (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan\/The Graduate University for Advanced Studies\/The University of Tokyo, Japan), M. Kasliwal (California Institute of Technology, USA), S. S. Kimura (Tohoku University, Japan), Y. Matsuda (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan\/Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan), Y. Miyamoto (Fukui University of Technology, Japan), H. Nagai (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan\/The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan), K. Nakanishi (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan\/The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan), and R. Stein (University of Maryland\/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA).<\/p>\n

NSF NOIRLab<\/a>, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the\u00a0International Gemini Observatory<\/a>\u00a0(a facility of\u00a0NSF<\/a>,\u00a0NRC\u2013Canada<\/a>,\u00a0ANID\u2013Chile<\/a>,\u00a0MCTIC\u2013Brazil<\/a>,\u00a0MINCyT\u2013Argentina<\/a>, and\u00a0KASI\u2013Republic of Korea<\/a>), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO<\/a>), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO<\/a>), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC<\/a>), and NSF\u2013DOE\u00a0Vera C. Rubin Observatory<\/a>\u00a0(in cooperation with\u00a0DOE<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0SLAC<\/a>\u00a0National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA<\/a>) under a cooperative agreement with\u00a0NSF<\/a>\u00a0and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on\u00a0I\u2019oligam Du\u2019ag\u00a0(Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on\u00a0Maunakea\u00a0in Hawai\u2018i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pach\u00f3n in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of\u00a0I\u2019oligam Du\u2019ag\u00a0to the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation, and\u00a0Maunakea\u00a0to the\u00a0Kanaka Maoli\u00a0(Native Hawaiians) community.<\/p>\n

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is operated by the East Asian Observatory, which is funded by the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan), the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC, United Kingdom), and other partners.<\/p>\n

Links<\/p>\n

Article Title<\/p>\n

Compact dusty starbursts at cosmic noon linked to high-energy neutrinos<\/p>\n

Article Publication Date<\/p>\n

17-Jun-2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 Left: the field around the gravitationally lensed galaxy nicknamed \u201cShadow Blaster.\u201d This galaxy lies 11 billion light-years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[61,60,248,82],"class_list":["post-505083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-physics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}