— atomic nuclei moving at nearly the speed of light — strike dust and gas, they generate both gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos. Previous research has detected gamma rays from the Milky Way's plane, so scientists have expected high-energy neutrinos from there as well.
IceCube encompasses 0.24 cubic miles of Antarctic ice holding more than 5,000 light sensors. These devices watch for the unique flashes of light that result from the rare instances in which neutrinos do smash into atoms.that lies along the Milky Way's equator. They studied 10 years of IceCube data, analyzing 60,000 neutrinos — 30 times more than prior neutrino scans of the galactic plane had looked at.