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Several ground-based cosmic-ray studies throughout the world have detected extremely high-energy cosmic rays, but their sources are unknown. These cosmic emissaries heralded the birth of neutrino astronomy, a new means of learning about our vast, weird cosmos. Other major projects (such as KM3NeT, which would use instruments strewn throughout a huge portion of the Mediterranean Sea) are also interested in catching these outlier particles. Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie were given creative names by scientists based on Sesame Street characters. Scientists have recorded neutrinos so energetic that they must have originated outside our solar system using the IceCube experiment in Antarctica. However, it may possibly be something completely new that we haven’t seen before. Supernova remnants, black holes, pulsars, explosions known as gamma ray bursts, and reactions in galaxies’ densely populated centers are also possible answers (called active galactic nuclei). Whereas cosmic rays are deflected by magnetic fields, cosmic neutrinos may be traced back to their origins and reveal information about the incredibly energetic processes that gave rise to them. And, unlike cosmic rays, which are charged nuclei that may have the same origins as cosmic neutrinos, neutrinos travel unaffected. Cosmic neutrinos, unlike light, can come to us from places that are opaque, revealing secrets of incredibly dense areas in our cosmos. The same property that makes neutrinos so difficult to catch-their aversion to interacting with matter-also makes them wonderful communicators from far-flung parts of the universe. What’s heating up these very energetic particles is one of those exciting science riddles. Scientists have discovered that the highest-energy neutrinos are not produced on Earth they originate from beyond our solar system and have energies well beyond what we can produce in particle accelerators.

Scientists have several theories, but they don’t know for sure. Where do the universe’s highest-energy neutrinos come from?