Out of a Black Hole, Into the South Pole

Have you ever heard of the phrase “what goes into a black hole can never come out?” Well, this saying can be deemed obsolete for we now have the pleasure to meet the subatomic particle that successfully made it out of one of the most powerful regions of spacetime: the neutrino.

On September 22, 2017, a particular astronomical phenomenon crash landed miraculously in a space exploration site and was deemed a mystery to the space world and industry. A neutrino shot out of a gravitational cannon into the nether regions of Antarctica and set off a multitude of detectors known as the IceCube South Neutrino Observatory. These alarms notified the numerous, highly sensitive telescopes to detect this particle, including the Fermi-Gamma-ray Space Telescope. After studying the high-definition images derived from the telescope, the scientists have recently discovered a lead as to what type of black hole the neutrino emerged from. Although it is yet to be proved, the neutrino seems to have shot out of a supermassive black hole, specifically, a quasar. These giant black holes “in the centers of galaxies where matter and energy get squeezed like toothpaste out of the top and bottom of a doughnut of doomed swirling material in a violent jet.” (Overbye)

As its name strongly suggests, IceCube is an organization dedicated to spotting astronomical anomalies throughout the south pole, specifically, the advancement of the neutrino. The IceCube initiative was started to monitor the movement of neutrinos in the solar system and their effect on our lives. Startled by this recent discovery, the IceCube scientists diligently perused through their previous records to find that there have been other neutrino explosions from the galaxy that scientists have nicknamed the “Texas source.”

Let’s take a deeper look into the entity that has exited the quasar. A neutrino is a neutral subatomic particle with a mass close to zero and half-integral spin, rarely reacting with normal matter. For this subatomic particle to interact with the solar space existing outside our horizon, the outcomes could be endless. This newly discovered mystery hosts a plethora of opportunities to further the exploration of the realm of science and astronomy by giving humans a better understanding of dark matter and dark energy, mainly posing the question: could we humans one day extract particles from black holes?

Today, this discovery is being revealed to the outside world, causing a fit of excitement that has been bubbled up regarding this strange phenomenon. To process the once-impossible implications of this subatomic particle, let’s look at another scientific phenomenon. Have you heard of the Butterfly Effect? It is a critical part of the overarching chaos theory developed in the fictional works of Stephen King that discusses the significance of the smaller things in our never-balanced system. It is the classic principle that every particle in our universe, regardless of its size or apparent significance, has an impact on the rest of the world. Thinking about the larger implications of the neutrino, what could the extraction of this neutrino have done to the fundamental structure of the quasar? Is it the same black hole that it was before this neutrino that was buried under the crushing mass of a supermassive entity shot out at a mega-velocity? Consequently, the neutrino shooting out of a quasar could pose some questions as to the integrity of black holes, since now we know that there are particles that can be extracted from them.

By extension, and using the knowledge learned by the effects of the Butterfly Effect, the implications of this singular neutrino exiting a black hole and landing in the South Pole are astronomical (no pun intended). Could we by any means start extracting particles that have been hiding in black holes for centuries? Is there any way we can recreate the explosion that caused the neutrino to shoot out of the quasar? We must cautiously wait and examine the beautiful mystery surrounding us, for the more we are curious, the more the vast expanse of space opens itself up to us, waiting patiently to be found.