Hunt for Nuclear Reactors in the First Global Antineutrino Map

Here’s a fun science fact: Your body is constantly being pummeled with tiny particles traveling nearly the speed of light. They’re called neutrinos and antineutrinos—the smallest-known subatomic particles—and they fly out of nuclear reactions taking place in the sun, black holes, and in the red-hot bowels of the earth.

Scientists at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and elsewhere recently made history with what they call the first map of global antineutrino activity. Their glowing cartography shows areas of radioactive emissions in orange and (higher still) deep red.