Our own Milky Way is sending out neutrinos, the so-called 'ghost particles'

The IceCube Lab under a starry, night sky, with the Milky Way appearing over low auroras in the background. (Yuya Makino, IceCube/NSF)

A giant detector buried deep within the Antarctic ice at the South Pole has obtained the first evidence of eerie particles called neutrinos coming from the innards of our own home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The discovery is a step towards scientists being better able to use particles to study hidden or elusive phenomena in the universe, rather than having to rely on light seen by telescopes.