---
title: "Scientists Confirm an Incredibly Powerful Antimatter Particle Crashed Into Antarctica"
description: "Scientists have now confirmed that an unusually powerful particle of antimatter crashed down into Antarctica back in December 2016. The collision seems to have triggered a subatomic cascade effect called Glashow resonance, Live Science reports, which is a theoretical phenomenon that requires more energy to set off than even the most powerful particle […]"
date: "2021-03-12"
modified: "2021-03-17"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/incredibly-powerful-antimatter-particle-crashed-antarctica"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "Antimatter"
  - "icecube neutrino observatory"
  - "particle physics"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Confirm an Incredibly Powerful Antimatter Particle Crashed Into Antarctica

![Scientists confirmed that a powerful antineutrino crashed into Antarctica in 2016, triggering a subatomic phenomenon that had never been verified before.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/incredibly-powerful-antimatter-particle-crashed-antarctica.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: IceCube Neutrino Observatory\</em\>*

## Crash Course

Scientists have now confirmed that an unusually powerful particle of antimatter crashed down into Antarctica back in December 2016.

The collision seems to have triggered a subatomic cascade effect called Glashow resonance, *[Live Science ](<https://www.livescience.com/extreme-neutrino-hits-antarctica.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29>)*[reports](<https://www.livescience.com/extreme-neutrino-hits-antarctica.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29>), which is a theoretical phenomenon that requires more energy to set off than even the [most powerful particle accelerators](<https://futurism.com/new-cosmic-record-set-scientists-detect-fastest-neutrino-ever-1000x-energy-lhc>) can provide. Scientists didn't expect to see tangible evidence of Glashow resonance, but now that they have it helps further confirm the Standard Model of subatomic physics.

## Slow and Steady

It took over four years for researchers affiliated with the [IceCube Neutrino Observatory](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/neutrino-source-blazar>) in Antarctica to confirm the Glashow resonance, according to [the study](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03256-1.epdf?sharing_token=bmXAPsLue73aJf8igjyFydRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O2FN1FHPNt7t7bqNjEUrNSKAMAtyEudikAq5bebS1qgPIpszzTwWsPBFVqzh0qnqyMq_QrCNmX84llEFs8F_jP9A1mEE49jPDo5h467RaO1dpB0P5xwnGaS9m2zD79HgMuE4Y4DMeTZSXC_aDc7uUV0_MrTJFCnAotQIfMA2kcrHyo0mWzftI9BfdQUihrpdH5QKRNXqtYXp75ukp1pTZvfwrRq93N5rMAMTdivnRg0rI12rsrB-ua1cqXYNAOfF-ab_5T41adW9vzhah2rxr1BYnHN5cgidpVseafszVcDMPk3tLn8dBXYeM0TM99Uz7GDer_5Vxiio63HNYRXGNLuJqbOyzKt1rGJ3BGZ1WcC9xJjwCNnNQUH0RWWqUV0SxCLAhjQd8C_Ct570yEnYxD&tracking_referrer=www.livescience.com>), published Wednesday in the journal *Nature*.

But that's nothing compared to how long scientists have been waiting to spot the bizarre phenomenon. *Live Science* notes that Stephen Glashow first came up with the notion of the subatomic cascade back in 1960 and that it's been a matter of pure theory that whole time.

## Flash Physics

The actual cascade of Glashow resonance involves an antineutrino — or even a regular neutrino — crashing into an electron with so much energy that it produces a comparatively-large particle called a W boson.

Doing this requires the extremely-tiny antineutrino to carry 6.3 petaelectronvolts, or the amount of energy of 6.3 quadrillion electrons accelerated by a single volt. That's the same, *Live Science* calculated, as 6,300 mosquitos traveling at one mile per hour — or one mosquito traveling 8.2 times the speed of sound.

That's 450 times the energy that the Large Hadron Collider is expected to produce *after* it's done being upgrade, *Live Science* reports, meaning scientists are left waiting for these bizarre, rare phenomena to happen on their own in nature.

**READ MORE:** [Monster antimatter particle slams into Antarctica](<https://www.livescience.com/extreme-neutrino-hits-antarctica.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29>) \[*Live Science*\]

**More on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory:** *[We Finally Know Where Those Mysterious Subatomic Particles Are Coming From](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/neutrino-source-blazar>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)