Somewhere high above Antarctica and really far from any human that should interfere with it stands an antenna which is ideally designed to pick up any high-energy exotic particle that finds its way from space and into the atmosphere of our own planet. Not too long ago, this exact antenna managed to find some particles coming from somewhere off the ground.
This discovery is the type to change physics forever. The apparatus carries the name of Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna and it represents NASA’s experiment built for discovering any exotic particles, such as the neutrinos which fall from the sky. Because this kind of particle is usually found in the upper atmosphere, scientists saw it fit to tie the sensitive electronic equipment to a high-altitude balloon.
However, when scientists saw the data which indicated that some high-energy particles came from below, this could only mean that those particles managed to find their way through the entire planet. This was thought to be pretty weird. Some particles, such as neutrinos, have no problems with passing through ordinary matter so they can pass through anything, even through an entire planet.
However, these are low-energy neutrinos and there are billions of them passing through you right now. High-energy particles, on the other hand can’t pass through the atmosphere without colliding with something. The fact that NASA picked up not one, but two such particles shouldn’t be possible.
The only explanation that makes sense until now is that they are of a new type, one that has never been seen before. Since new particles translate into new physics, it is definitely something that isn’t seen every day. Currently, scientists can only speculate and there is still a lot of work to do before we can talk about new physics.