In 2023, the KM3NeT neutrino detector picked up an impossibly powerful signal—tens of thousands of times more energetic than anything produced by humanity’s best particle accelerators. Since then, scientists have tried to pinpoint its source, dipping into some creative—and arguably wild—explanations.

But a new theory may just take the cake for the weirdest. Some scientists are now arguing that, simply, the signal came from an ancient black hole made of cosmic strings, hiding inside a fifth dimension. So, actually, not very simple—but according to a recent paper published in Physical Review D, the rules of quantum gravity “inevitably” lead to five-dimensional primordial black holes, or super-dense, hypothetical black holes from the cosmic dawn. To be clear, the study focused on the possibility of primordial black holes emerging from this string-based framework.

However, if this interpretation is validated, it would very nicely explain what we’ve yet to understand about the 2023 signal. For instance, this neutrino—a tiny, neutral particle—wasn’t accompanied by other photons, which is why detectors as capable as KM3NeT never caught it, explained the team, which includes Dieter Lüst, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Germany.

Neutrinos are sometimes described as “ ghostly ” because they rarely interact with other matter, making them difficult to detect and study despite their extreme abundance. Although many things about the neutrino—including things as simple as its mass—remain undefined, astrophysicists have found that they’re incredibly useful for studying cosmic phenomena. Specifically, the energy levels of a neutrino clue scientists into the identity and characteristics of whatever flung it to Earth.

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