Scientists have found new "ghost particles" coming from inside the Earth.

The mysterious particles, known as geoneutrinos, rarely interact with matter and so can be almost impossible to detect.

But scientists working in the world's biggest underground laboratory have found 53 new events, nearly twice as many as before.

They were detected using the Borexino detector, which is buried 1,400 meters underground takes incredibly sensitive measurements of usually undetectable phenomena.

Scientists hope that the new discoveries could shed more light on the processes that are happening right beneath our feet but remain largely mysterious.

Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas from fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in February 2010 Nasa/ESA/STScI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012 Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Death of a star: This image from Nasa's Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015 Nasa/APL/SwRI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015 Nasa/Scott Kelly

Geoneutrinos are produced during radioactive decay inside the Earth. They mean that our planet is ablaze with elusive particles that stream up to its surface – but are entirely invisible to our eyes.

The Borexino detector located at the underground Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy aims to see that invisible flow of particles. Scientists have been watching for neutrinos since 2007, and have been collecting informaiton over that time.

By last year, the researchers had spotted the new stream of ghost particles as well as making their measurements more certain.

"Geoneutrinos are the only direct traces of the radioactive decays that occur inside the Earth, and which produce an as yet unknown portion of the energy driving all the dynamics of our planet," said Livia Ludhova, one of the two current scientific coordinators of Borexino, in a statement.

The new discoveries could help shed light on those mysterious processes, which help create the unexplained heat that comes from the centre of the Earth. The world beneath our feet gives rise to a host of strange phenomena – such as the Earth's spectacular volcanos and magnetic field – which are not like any other seen in the solar system.

The new data helps refine scientists' understanding of how those processes happen. It shows that it is very likely that radioactive processes inside the Earth are generating more than half of its heat, with the rest coming from the original formation of the planet, meaning that those radioactive processes are responsible for those volcanos and earthquakes that change life on the surface.