{
  "id": 12374220,
  "title": "What are ghost particles? Nobel's answer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/what-are-ghost-particles-nobels-answer",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-06T11:49:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/what-are-ghost-particles-that-pass-through-your-body-every-second-francis-halzen-wins-physics-nobel-for-catching-them-in-south-pole-ice/articleshow/134739038.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2026, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Francis Halzen, a Belgian-born physicist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Halzen was recognized for his pioneering work in developing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a telescope buried deep within Antarctic ice that detects high-energy neutrinos from distant cosmic events.\n\nNeutrinos are notoriously elusive particles that interact very weakly with matter, making them extremely difficult to observe. They are produced in enormous numbers by the Sun and pass through our bodies and the Earth without leaving a trace. However, the IceCube Observatory is designed to catch a different kind of neutrino – those with incredibly high energy, generated by extreme cosmic phenomena such as matter falling into supermassive black holes.\n\nThe IceCube Observatory consists of a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice, embedded with hundreds of sensors that detect the faint blue light emitted when a neutrino interacts with an atomic nucleus in the ice. Despite the challenges, Halzen's innovative approach has revolutionized neutrino astronomy, allowing scientists to trace the origin of these ghostly particles back to their sources in distant galaxies.\n\nSince its completion in 2010, IceCube has made several groundbreaking discoveries. In 2013, it detected 28 high-energy neutrinos, the first solid evidence for neutrinos arriving from outside our Solar System. Subsequent observations have traced neutrinos back to specific cosmic sources, such as the blazar TXS 0506+056 and the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068. Most recently, IceCube has provided evidence of neutrino emission from our own Milky Way galaxy.\n\nThe Nobel Committee praised Halzen for his leadership in creating this \"fantastic instrument\" that has opened up a new field of astronomy. The prize money of 12 million Swedish kronor will be used to further advance neutrino research. While IceCube is a remarkable achievement, researchers are already planning the next generation of neutrino detectors, such as IceCube-Gen2, which could detect even more extreme particle accelerations and study them at higher energies.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}