An underground detector to understand ghost particles in the universe makes the first major discovery
NEW YORK – A massive underground detector aimed at understanding mysterious ghost particles in our environment released its first major results on Wednesday.
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in China began collecting data in August with the goal of understanding neutrinos: tiny cosmic particles that date back to the Big Bang and travel harmlessly through our bodies by the trillions every second.
However, they weigh almost nothing, making it difficult to sniff.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the JUNO team revealed their findings during the first two months of data collection — including some of the most accurate measurements to date of how neutrinos change between three types, or flavors, as they pass through space.
“It makes me look forward to more exciting results in the future,” said physicist Kate Scholberg of Duke University, who was not involved in the new research.
JUNO’s spherical detector is located 2,297 feet (700 meters) underground. It detects antineutrinos from the collision of two nearby nuclear power plants.
Antineutrinos are equally mysterious, contradictory versions of neutrinos that scientists can study to understand their behavior and how neutrinos work.
When antineutrinos collide with particles inside the detector, they produce a flash of light.
Scientists hope the detector will help solve the mystery of how heavy each neutrino is. They think that two are equal in weight and that the third is odd, but they are not sure if two are heavier and one is lighter or vice versa.
The preliminary results don’t answer that question yet, but they show what the detector is capable of — and that “it will be able to detect the fine ripples” that separate the neutrino flavor from its mass, said study co-author Liangjian Wen, a member of the JUNO collaboration.
Two similar neutrino detectors – Japan’s Hyper-Kamiokande and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment based in the United States – are set to begin data collection within the next decade, testing the results of the Chinese detector using different methods.
