High-Energy Neutrinos from the Galactic Plane

Abstract

The Milky Way, the largest feature in the sky, has been studied by humans for millennia, always observed in light or other wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. For the first time, the IceCube collaboration has observed the Milky Way in high energy neutrinos. The observation of our Galaxy comes after observations of extragalactic neutrinos. Galactic neutrinos are difficult to observe at IceCube for two reasons; most of the emission is in the Southern sky and has a softer energy spectrum. To overcome this, a novel analysis was developed. A feat of innovative data analysis by using data previously thought unusable provided a milestone observation in multi-messenger astronomy.