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<\/a>\nThe inside of the sphere with the scintillating liquid. Credit – JUNO Collaboration<\/p>\n
Even so, the detector itself is covered by an additional detector called the \u201cTop Tracker\u201d, which is covering a 44m diameter pool of ultrapure water. Its job is to detect any stray particle that might make it all the way down to the detector. Ultimately it can\u2019t stop them, but it can eliminate the data artifact they might create.<\/p>\n
That data artifact would happen if one of the particles hits the \u201cliquid scintillator\u201d inside a sphere surrounded by 43,212 sensitive photodetectors that can pick up individual photons.Combining data from all of the different photodetectors would allow researchers to tease out some of the physical properties of neutrinos, including what, if any, differences there are between the three \u201ctypes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those are the electron, the muon, and the tau neutrino. Each has slightly different characteristics from one another, and they have the ability to shift between the different types, or \u201coscillate\u201d in the language of particle physicists. One of the main goals of JUNO is to understand the mass of each, but, given that ask is probably too much, researchers are at least hoping to get a sense of the hierarchy of masses – i.e. which one is heaviest vs lightest. Another potential discovery is how often the types change from one to another – i.e. what is the frequency of their oscillation.<\/p>\n
Understanding how neutrinos work would unlock a clearer picture of cosmology, where they are thought to be responsible for the early expansion during the big bang, astrophysics, since they are thought to provide insights into supernovae, and even geology, as radioactive rocks from deep within the Earth emit them. That\u2019s part of the reason scientists have invested so much time and energy into tracking down their properties.<\/p>\n JUNO is the next step in that journey. The setup itself is a collaboration of 74 institutes and 700 individuals, and is led by the Chinese Academy of Science\u2019s Institute for High Energy Physics. It should operate for at least ten years and hopes to collect enough data over that time frame to shed some additional light on the characteristics of these enigmatic particles. If it does, then multiple realms of science will be better for it.<\/p>\n Learn More:<\/p>\n CNRS – JUNO: a giant detector to unravel the mysteries of neutrinos<\/a><\/p>\n UT – An Unfinished Detector has Already Spotted the Highest-Energy Neutrino Ever Seen<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> The Top Tracker covering the pool of water surrounding the detector. Credit – JUNO Collaboration<\/p>\n