How To See Black Holes By Catching Neutrinos

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Neutrinos are one of the most bizarre of known particles. Black holes are probably the most bizarre of astrophysical objects. Makes sense we should use one to study the other, no? Well, today we’re doing just that.

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
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[lisajsch]

So cool to have our work featured in PBS space time! We're doing our best to make these first steps of neutrino astronomy possible. And there are more detectors being built and planned! Just one criticism: the neutrino map you showed is an older one, the new one with 4.2 sigma significance is available in Science and also on ArXiv by now.

[spacetime]

Another quality rabbit hole to go down! It's amazing how much the quality of physics content the public has nowadays still remember the days of dumbed down physics content. Love this channel!

[Astronomater]

as a doc, i agree that someone seeing flashes of light should see a doc immediately. worst case scenario is that it is a detached retina. most likely cause is likely a migraine aura but if it persists or happens repeatedly, it definitely isn't a neutrino.

[AlyxBowen]

As a science enthusiast and former Antarctican I’m happy to see IceCube being celebrated on SpaceTime. I worked on the observatory communications lines to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and it will always be a career highlight for me. Thank you SpaceTime.

[markzambelli]

Matt O'Dowd is a Legend.

There are so many hard-working people that make this channel great, a few of which we see mentioned in the credits. Yet atop this pyramid of talent stands Matt, the very face of PBS Space Time... whether he's clarifying pronunciations or detailing the latest research in the subject of the day he does so with that wry Aussie humour that's so infectious and such a pleasure to see.

Good on ya' mate... bloody Legend!

[TerenceClark]

I love that a project my local university, UW Madison, is so involved with! My ex was on the local neutrino detector team for the project next door, CUORE, which got a call out on a prior episode. It's awesome knowing so much cutting edge physics is happening right down the road, quite literally.

[ekkehard]

Wouldn't it be by a factor of 1000? Each particle passing through is 10 times as likely to be detected, but there should also be 100 times as many particles we have the chance to detect since the "area" they see is 100 times greater?

[semaj_]

The calculation of likelihood of seeing a neutrino at the end was honestly one of my favorite parts of this video. I wonder if there's a way to include more of those sorts of "real world" math problems in future videos? That kind of stuff is so cool to me.

[theweapi]

11:55 Ten cubic kilometers has a diameter of the cube root of 10 (2.154 km), not 10 km diameter (which would be a thousand cubic kilometers).

[defeatSpace]

The Ice Cube array gives me chills of awe.

[vasuhooda]

babe wake up! PBS space time just dropped a new video!!

[weathercat]

It feels like we are entering a completely new age of cosmic discovery!

[weksauce]

IMPORTANT PSA: If you think you've detected Cherenkov radiation in your eye, and it's peripheral, it's FAR more likely (almost certain) that you're just having vitreal detachment, which is a normal aging process. Get it checked anyway, because there is concern of retinal detachment, but that complication is rare (way less rare than detecting Cherenkov radiation though!).

[jado]

Matt. You are a cosmic legend in the vast emptiness of this space.

[WelshyPilotGuy]

I find your content so relaxing to listen to that I never get past 60% without dozing off. I have to watch a few times to get through it. I’m not saying it’s boring, I think my mind just wanders into physics imagination combined with your soothing voice and I’m asleep. Love it and keep up the great work. Thank you.

[youstandcorrected]

Don't know how many years I've followed SpaceTime by now... but thank you! P.S. Please never remove the ambient music (end of the episode) from your shows. I adore it.

[Bhenderson]

I learn so much from these videos, they do not go too technical but do not treat you like a simpleton either. Its great to enjoy these subjects again as I used to enjoy them a lot just after I left college. If I could contribute I would, but unfortunatly I work with sick pigeons and there are lots of them and I am the only one buying the medicine. If I ever get a bit richer, you can be sure I will give some payback, in the meantime thank you for being so generous with these videos and the work that goes into them. Thank you.

[mkjaiswal]

Hi PBS Space Time,
I have a request for a video about a recent experiment in Quantum Gravity. The people at Google and different physicists simulated a quantum version of a wormhole, using entangled pairs of qubits in Google's Quantum Computer. It would be really interesting to see an explanation of their experiment from your team, covering the details about their circuit as it seems like a major achievement for Quantum Gravity.
As always, keep making great videos like these. Thank you.

[ciCCapROSTi]

I'm sure you got told multiple times already, but 10km^3 and a cube with 10km sides are VERY different volumes.

[qwerty_and_azerty]

This is probably in my top 5 favourite Space Time episodes ever! Thanks for all your hard work producing such great content 🎉