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Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

nature.com

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Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#51

Post by mppm »

GuB-42 wrote: post #25
antognini wrote: post #7

For context, 120 PeV is about 10% the kinetic energy of a ping pong ball during typical play.

Now, what will happen if you get hit by a ping-pong ball mass of 120 PeV neutrinos? 120 PeV is about 2e-16 grams, so a ping-pong ball will have about 1e16 of them. From nothing, to detectable, to lethal, to big boom? My intuition would be "detectable" but I don't know enough to do the maths. And by the way, I am using the mass-energy, not proper mass, because the question is crazy enough not to even consider what wou…

> big boom

The probability of interaction of neutrinos with matter increases with the energy. I've asked o1 to estimate the mean free path of a 120 PeV neutrino in water and it came up with 1000km. So let's say, conservatively, that 10^-7 of the total energy gets deposited in your body when the beam goes through. The mass equivalent of a ping pong ball is about 2.5x10^14 J, which gives us 2.5x10^7 J total, or about 6kg TNT equivalent. This is only an order-of-magnitude estimate, but it would definitely not be healthy.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#52

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

idlewords wrote: post #49
mr_toad wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American kettles. Kettles in hard core countries push 2300 to 2400 watts ;-)

Slow-boiled water gives superior flavor!

Keeps the midichlorians from jumping out.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#53

Post by BobaFloutist »

jl6 wrote: post #44
antognini wrote: post #7

For context, 120 PeV is about 10% the kinetic energy of a ping pong ball during typical play.

So, according to basic Ant-Man theory, if I were hit by one of these, it should be like getting all that (10% of a) ping pong ball energy concentrated in a tiny spot, causing me to fly backwards across the room?

I would expect it to be more likely to punch through skin than to actually propel you.

But also neutrinos don't typically collide with things very easily, they're more likely to pass through you without you ever knowing.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#54

Post by loeg »

zozbot234 wrote: post #14
lnauta wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the lead researchers in KM3NeT mentioned that the particle was emitting 2 horse power in light during detector transit. A typical body builder expends about 1 horse power while performing, so its 2 body builders in a single particle.

Fun fact, a typical horse exerts about 1 horse power of usable work while performing. That's so weird, I'm sure almost no one would've been able to guess that - but it's true. (To be clear, that's sustained effort over time, not just momentary. Athletically trained humans can do about 1 HP of peak momentary effort, and around 0.3 HP if sustained over time.)

That's an all-day number. Peak HP/horse is somewhere in the 6-15 range.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#55

Post by nxpnsv »

dooglius wrote: post #27

It looks like they detected a muon and are inferring a neutrino from the fact it went through a lot of solid. Couldn't it be any other weakly-interacting particle though?

Nothing else that we know of would create a muon of that energy deep inside bedrock.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#56

Post by tadfisher »

the_arun wrote: post #30
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This particle spread this energy through a volume of seawater a few km deep in the Mediterranean. It's going to raise the temperature of that volume a few billionths of a degree, if that. So, no, we can't.

What if our existing solar panels are optimized to detect these? Then will it improve the quality of solar panels to capture more energy from sunlight as well? Sorry, I'm no expert in this - asking more of a curiosity.

Neutrinos interact extremely weakly with ordinary matter, which is why the detectors are typically huge volumes of water. Even then, the neutrinos interact with the purpose-built detectors on the order of one in a trillion. A neutrino power generator is not a feasible thing to build.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#57

Post by Onavo »

jiggawatts wrote: post #24
epistasis wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These calculations involve some elementary but easy to mess up algebra and some very demanding numerical calculations for which regular IEEE double precision is insufficient. If you'd like to double-check these results, be sure to use a multiple precision calculator with at least 30 significant digits of accuracy. So you're saying my iPhone built-in calculator app is going to have problems....? Time to whip out dc…

https://www.wolframalpha.com/

Or ChatGPT to output Julia code

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#58

Post by AnimalMuppet »

dooglius wrote: post #27

It looks like they detected a muon and are inferring a neutrino from the fact it went through a lot of solid. Couldn't it be any other weakly-interacting particle though?

Nit: As I read the article, they aren't sure that it went through any solid. Went through a lot of seawater, though. And your argument still applies.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#59

Post by parineum »

jl6 wrote: post #44
antognini wrote: post #7

For context, 120 PeV is about 10% the kinetic energy of a ping pong ball during typical play.

So, according to basic Ant-Man theory, if I were hit by one of these, it should be like getting all that (10% of a) ping pong ball energy concentrated in a tiny spot, causing me to fly backwards across the room?

Isn't Ant-Man logic that he still has the same mass when he shrinks and, as such, can generate the same force?

Unless you get thrown back by ping pong balls normally, I think you'd be fine.

Re: Record-breaking neutrino is most energetic ever detected

#60

Post by whyenot »

lnauta wrote: post #8
antognini wrote: post #7

For context, 120 PeV is about 10% the kinetic energy of a ping pong ball during typical play.

One of the lead researchers in KM3NeT mentioned that the particle was emitting 2 horse power in light during detector transit. A typical body builder expends about 1 horse power while performing, so its 2 body builders in a single particle.

So, 2,000 milliSchwarzeneggers if we use SI units?
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