Boyd explained that as an exploding star collapsed to form a black hole, the star could release 99 percent of its final energy in the form of neutrinos. Like the crack of a starting pistol before a race, the instant when a black hole forms could give researchers a definite starting point for timing a neutrino's journey from a supernova to Earth. As the neutrinos raced to Earth, heavier neutrinos should fall behind lighter neutrinos, if only by a second or two in tens of thousands of years of travel, Boyd said. And it would allow us the most precise way we've ever had of detecting the masses of neutrinos. Boyd estimates that Earth will witness at least a few supernovas in the next hundred years.
Scientists expect all three types of neutrinos to be emitted from a supernova.
The challenge is to determine which type has been detected, Boyd said. Beacom's work was funded by the California Institute of Technology.