Historical marker at Headlands Beach State Park recognizes birth of neutrino astronomy - The News- Herald
On Feb. 23, 1987, Headlands Beach State Park was part of a scientific breakthrough.
On Aug. 27, a historical marker commemorating the achievement was unveiled at the popular Mentor park.
Members of the physics and science community, scholars, professors, the Ohio Department of Natural Resource and many others were on hand for the unveiling of the plaque near the entrance of the park recognizing “The Birth of Neutrino Astronomy.”
According to ODNR Historical Researcher Neil Humphrey, it is just the 17th such historical marker at a state park or other nature sites in Ohio.
In 1981, the University of Michigan, University of California-Irvine, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory placed an instrument deep below the park — some 2,000 feet underground—in the Morton Salt Mine. The Irvine Michigan-Brookhaven Detector was designed to detect neutrinos from beyond earth’s atmosphere.
Neutrinos (tiny subatomic particles) were first envisioned in 1930 by theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli. They were so small he believed their existence would never be verified.
However, by the 1950s scientists were capable of measuring neutrinos on earth from nuclear explosions and, later, in the atmosphere. Existence of neutrinos across the universe, however, remained elusive.
On that fateful February day, however, neutrinos ejected from a supernova that exploded some 170,000 years ago at last reached earth. The IMB Detector detected this burst of neutrinos. Another detector located inside a zinc mine in Japan verified these findings.
This detection furthered understandings of neutrinos and what began as the search to prove proton decay birthed the new scientific field of neutrino astronomy.
“We are so happy and this marker is so deserving,” Headlands Beach State Park Director Gary Jerome said. “It represents that humans got together, were challenged and got questions answered.”
Several of the speakers referred to Headlands as a “special park” and the marker commemorates a “special discovery”.
Hank Sobel, a professor of physics at UC-Irvine came a long way from the west coast for the ceremony in Lake County, but he said after all the work that went in it was well worth it.
“We worked hard on this experiment for many years and this marker represents one historic observation,” Sobel said.
Originally Published: August 27, 2024 at 5:40 p.m.