Extragalactic Neutrinos

Editorial Science Illustration • Symmetry Magazine • 2023
Stylized painting of neutrinos traveling from an AGN or supernova and plunging into a dark blue sea, producing Cherenkov radiation (conical blue light) underwater.

FOR
Symmetry Magazine / Sandbox Studio, 2022
Thanks to AD Michael Branigan

WORK
Concepts, illustration

TOOLS
Rebelle, Clip Studio Paint

INFO
From the particular to the universal — some of my favorite subjects, all in one.

Extragalactic neutrinos burst out of an AGN and plunge into the ocean. There, the typically-elusive neutrinos occasionally collide with atoms in water molecules, triggering the creation of third, charged particles. These, in turn, produce Cherenkov radiation, manifesting visibly as cones of blue light. Experiments like IceCube and the newly-proposed P-ONE are configured to detect this emission.

For an article about the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE) on Symmetry Magazine, by Mara Johnson-Groh: Proposed experiment seeks origin of cosmic neutrinos.

Concept sketches: neutrinos traveling from an AGN or supernova and plunging into the sea

Concept sketches

Screenshot of symmetrymagazine.org

© Olena Shmahalo