Multi-messenger astronomy is
astronomy based on the coordinated observation and interpretation of signals carried by disparate "messengers":
electromagnetic radiation,
gravitational waves,
neutrinos, and
cosmic rays. They are created by different astrophysical processes, and thus reveal different information about their sources.
The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON),[12] created in 2013,[13] is a broader and more ambitious project to facilitate the sharing of preliminary observations and to encourage the search for "sub-threshold" events which are not perceptible to any single instrument. It is based at Pennsylvania State University.
1987: Supernova
SN 1987A emitted
neutrinos that
were detected at the
Kamiokande-II,
IMB and
Baksan neutrino observatories, a couple of hours before the supernova light was detected with optical telescopes.
September 2017 (announced July 2018): On September 22, the extremely-high-energy[17] (about 290 TeV) neutrino event
IceCube-170922A[18] was recorded by the
IceCube Collaboration,[19][20] which sent out an alert with coordinates for the possible source. The detection of gamma rays above 100 MeV by the
Fermi-LAT Collaboration[21] and between 100 GeV and 400 GeV by the
MAGIC Collaboration[22] from the
blazarTXS 0506+056 (reported September 28 and October 4, respectively) was deemed positionally consistent with the neutrino signal.[23] The signals can be explained by ultra-high-energy protons accelerated in blazar jets, producing neutral pions (decaying into gamma rays) and charged pions (decaying into neutrinos).[24] This is the first time that a
neutrino detector has been used to locate an object in space and a source of cosmic rays has been identified.[23][25][26][27][28]
October 2019 (announced February 2021): On October 1, a high energy neutrino was detected at IceCube and follow-up measurements in visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays and radio waves identified the
tidal disruption eventAT2019dsg as possible source.[10]
November 2019 (announced June 2022): A second high energy neutrino detected by IceCube associated with a tidal disruption event AT2019fdr.[29]
June 2023: Astronomers used a new cascade neutrino technique[30] to detect, for the first time, the release of
neutrinos from the
galactic plane of the
Milky Waygalaxy, creating the first neutrino-based galactic map.[31][32]
^
abAartsen; et al. (The IceCube Collaboration, Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, AGILE, ASAS-SN, HAWC, H.E.S.S., INTEGRAL, Kanata, Kiso, Kapteyn, Liverpool Telescope, Subaru, Swift/NuSTAR, VERITAS, VLA/17B-403 teams) (12 July 2018). "Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A". Science. 361 (6398): eaat1378.
arXiv:1807.08816.
Bibcode:
2018Sci...361.1378I.
doi:
10.1126/science.aat1378.
PMID30002226.
S2CID49734791.
^De Angelis, Alessandro; Pimenta, Mario (2018). Introduction to particle and astroparticle physics (multimessenger astronomy and its particle physics foundations). Springer.
doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-78181-5.
ISBN978-3-319-78181-5.
^Wright, Katherine (2023).
"Milky Way Viewed through Neutrinos". Physics. 16. Physics 16, 115 (29 June 2023): 115.
doi:10.1103/Physics.16.115. Retrieved 1 July 2023. Kurahashi Neilson first came up with the idea to use cascade neutrinos to map the Milky Way in 2015.