A belowground experiment at the South Pole has now discovered three of the highest-energy neutrinos ever found, particles that may be created in the most violent explosions of the universe. These neutrinos all have energies at the absurdly high scale of peta?electron volts ? roughly the energy equivalent of one million times a proton?s mass. (As Albert Einstein showed in his famous E = mc2 equation, energy and mass are equivalent, and such a large amount of mass converts to an extreme level of energy.) The experiment, called IceCube, reported the discovery of the first two ? nicknamed Ernie and Bert ? last year, and announced the third Monday here at the American Physical Society meeting. ?Internally, it?s known as Big Bird,? said IceCube physicist Chris Weaver of the University of Wisconsin?Madison.
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