At a depth of 3.5 kilometers in the Mediterranean Sea, Dutch scientists are constructing a massive neutrino detector called Kilometre Cube Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT) spanning one cubic kilometer.

Recently KM3NeT detected an extraordinarily high-energy neutrino originating from outer space. Neutrinos are fundamental particles often referred to as “ghost particles” because they rarely interact with other matter. The energy of this cosmic neutrino was significantly greater than that of any neutrino previously detected on Earth. Is this a groundbreaking discovery? Moreover, what do we hope to learn from studying neutrinos? And why are scientists putting a telescope on the bottom of the ocean in the first place? Daan van Eijk will explain what  is detected by exploring the inner workings of the KM3NeT detector. How does the detector allow us to detect these ghostly particles? What can they reveal about the astrophysical processes in our universe that produce these elusive particles?

Observation of an ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrino with KM3NeT – publication