Trillions Of Particles Pass Through You Every Second. What They Are

Do you know Earth is bombarded by particles from outer space that pass through every obstacle - even the human body - without being stopped. These 'ghost particles' are called neutrinos and are primarily generated by nuclear reactions happening in the Sun's core. Even light takes some time to escape the Sun's dense core, but neutrinos are simply unstoppable. Like the fictional Marvel character Juggernaut, these particles can pass through all the obstacles (though not like a wrecking ball) without being noticed.

But have you ever thought how many neutrinos pass through the human body at a particular moment? "An estimated 100 trillion neutrinos pass through each one of us every second," said Michael Pravica, a professor of physics at University of Nevada, told Live Science.

These ghost particles are useful for scientists because they contain information about the place where they originated - unlike light particles that are trapped or scattered.

Neutrinos barely interact with matter around them. Though most of these particles originate from the nuclear fusion powering the Sun, some of them originate much farther away, as per Lu Lu, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Unlike other particles, neutrinos have no electrical charge or mass. This is why it's very difficult to detect neutrinos, which gave them the name "ghost particles".

According to US Department of Energy (DoE), neutrino's existence was detected in 1930, but it took 26 years to discover the particle. Today, scientists are trying to determine the neutrino's mass, how it interacts with matter, and whether the neutrino is its own antiparticle (a particle with the same mass but opposite electric or magnetic properties) or not.

Some scientists think neutrinos might be why all anti-matter (the antiparticles of all matter) disappeared after the Big Bang, leaving us in a universe made of matter, the DoE further said.