Scientists Verify Existence Of Elusive, Sun-Powering Ghost Particles
- 10 years ago
It took the work of over 100 scientists, but the elusive ghost particles that power the sun have finally been detected.
It took the work of over 100 international scientists working with the Borexino detector buried almost a mile deep in Italy, but the elusive ghost particles that power the sun have finally been detected.
They’re called solar neutrinos and the particles come about when two protons fuse together. In doing so they create the nuclear reactions that provide 99 percent of the sun’s energy.
While their resulting effect is highly noticeable, the particles themselves have proven to be anything but.
Despite the fact that trillions travel through a person’s body every second, researchers have had great difficulties picking up their signals.
Part of the problem is that solar neutrinos themselves produce almost no energy, making them pretty much invisible to current technologies.
The other complication is that they’re great at hiding in things like cosmic rays and substances that emit low levels of radioactivity.
A few neutrinos have been observed here and there, but until now none of those discovered had ever been born in the sun’s center.
Now that they have been, a new door into sun research has been opened.
Said one team member, “If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, with these neutrinos, we are looking not just at its face, but directly into its core. We have glimpsed the sun's soul.”
It took the work of over 100 international scientists working with the Borexino detector buried almost a mile deep in Italy, but the elusive ghost particles that power the sun have finally been detected.
They’re called solar neutrinos and the particles come about when two protons fuse together. In doing so they create the nuclear reactions that provide 99 percent of the sun’s energy.
While their resulting effect is highly noticeable, the particles themselves have proven to be anything but.
Despite the fact that trillions travel through a person’s body every second, researchers have had great difficulties picking up their signals.
Part of the problem is that solar neutrinos themselves produce almost no energy, making them pretty much invisible to current technologies.
The other complication is that they’re great at hiding in things like cosmic rays and substances that emit low levels of radioactivity.
A few neutrinos have been observed here and there, but until now none of those discovered had ever been born in the sun’s center.
Now that they have been, a new door into sun research has been opened.
Said one team member, “If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, with these neutrinos, we are looking not just at its face, but directly into its core. We have glimpsed the sun's soul.”