Using an observatory under construction deep beneath the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily, scientists have detected a ghostly subatomic particle called a neutrino boasting record-breaking energy in another important step toward understanding some of the universe's most cataclysmic events.

The team announced its “ultrahigh energy” neutrino on Wednesday, in a paper published in the journal Nature. The finding brings physicists and astronomers one step closer to understanding just what, exactly, is out there thrusting particles to such unfathomable speeds.

A “ghost particle” discovered by a detector in the Mediterranean carried 30 times more energy than any neutrino observed to date

Two years ago, a neutrino collided with matter and produced a tiny particle called a muon that pinged through the underwater detector, producing flashes of blue light. The researc