The discovery was made during an experiment by a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. As per the study results published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the mysterious radio waves were discovered by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a NASA-backed system designed to detect high-energy cosmic neutrinos from space.
Instead of picking up signals from the cosmos, ANITA recorded bizarre radio waves rising from kilometers below the Antarctic surface, the report said.
Scientists involved in the project were stunned to find that these signals were not coming from above, as expected, but from beneath the ice—seemingly travelling through thousands of kilometers of solid rock without being distorted or absorbed. This behavior is unlike any known particle and directly challenges existing models of particle physics.
“The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,” said Stephanie Wissel, a member of the ANITA team was quoted in media reports. “We don’t currently have an explanation for these anomalies,’’ she added.
Wissel noted that the signals are unlikely to be from neutrinos, which are known to pass through matter without interaction and typically go undetected despite their abundance.
The anomaly has sparked global scientific debate, with experts questioning whether the signals could be evidence of unknown particles or even a new branch of physics. As the investigation continues, the mystery beneath Antarctica remains one of the most intriguing puzzles in modern astrophysics.
