{"id":534830,"date":"2026-06-14T13:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/534830\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:53:12","slug":"ghostly-neutrinos-come-into-focus-as-chinas-juno-underground-detector-logs-first-high-precision-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/534830\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghostly neutrinos come into focus as China\u2019s Juno underground detector logs first high\u2011precision results"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>First scientific results from Juno neutrino detector<\/li>\n<li>Most precise measurements yet of two neutrino aspects<\/li>\n<li>These subatomic particles can pass through everything<\/li>\n<li>Major research efforts aim to reveal neutrino secrets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WASHINGTON, June \u200c14 \u2014 Researchers working to solve the mysteries of neutrinos have unveiled the first scientific findings from a new underground facility in China \u2014 the most precise measurements yet of certain aspects of these ghostly subatomic particles.<\/p>\n<p>The data comes from the Juno \u2014 short for Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory \u2014 facility using a particle detector built under about 2,130 feet (650 metres) of rock beneath a hill near the \u200ccity of Kaiping in China\u2019s southern Guangdong province.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists detailed their findings in a study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, based on data collected in the initial operating period after the detector\u2019s completion last year \u2014 its first roughly 59 days, from August 26 to November 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is important not only because the numbers themselves are useful for neutrino physics, but also because they demonstrate the performance of Juno as a new large-scale detector,\u201d said Yifang Wang, a physicist at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and spokesperson for the Juno Collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis paper shows that the experiment has started from a solid foundation,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>Together with DUNE \u2014 short for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment \u2014 in the United States and the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment in Japan, Juno is one of three large flagship projects expected to shape neutrino physics in the coming decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeutrinos are basic particles and are extremely abundant in the universe, but they remain among the least understood,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>Neutrinos can pass through anything, rarely interacting with matter. In fact, trillions of them travel through our bodies every second without us noticing.<\/p>\n<p>Forged in places like \u200cthe sun\u2019s core and exploding stars called supernovas, neutrinos come in three types, or \u201cflavours,\u201d and can change from one to another, called oscillation, as they travel. The \u2060difference in mass, known as mass ordering, between neutrino types remains a key unanswered \u2060question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJuno\u2019s central goal is to determine the neutrino mass ordering, meaning the ordering of the neutrino mass states. \u2060We know that neutrinos have mass, but we still \u2060do not know which mass state is \u2060the lightest and which is the heaviest,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis first result is not yet a determination of the mass ordering. Its value is that it validates the detector and the analysis with real data,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>Juno measured two of the six fundamental neutrino oscillation parameters with the best precision so far, Wang said, about 1.6 times better \u2060than previously done.<\/p>\n<p>Every type of particle of ordinary matter has a corresponding antiparticle with the same mass but opposite electric charge \u2014 positive, negative or neutral, as is the case with neutrinos. Thus, each neutrino has a corresponding antineutrino.<\/p>\n<p>The Juno experiment\u2019s chief approach in measuring neutrino oscillations is through observation of antineutrinos emanating from the Yangjiang and Taishan nuclear power plants, about 33 miles (52.5km) from the detector. The two parameters involved the behaviour of antineutrinos.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/346484.JPG\" alt=\"A view of the soon-to-be-completed and sealed central detector at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, during an organised media tour by the Chinese foreign ministry and the Chinese Academy of Science, in Kaiping, Guangdong province October 11, 2024. \u2014 Reuters pic\" title=\"A view of the soon-to-be-completed and sealed central detector at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, during an organised media tour by the Chinese foreign ministry and the Chinese Academy of Science, in Kaiping, Guangdong province October 11, 2024. \u2014 Reuters pic\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none';\" style=\"width:100%\"\/>        <\/p>\n<p>A view of the soon-to-be-completed and sealed central detector at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, during an organised media tour by the Chinese foreign ministry and the Chinese Academy of Science, in Kaiping, Guangdong province October 11, 2024. \u2014 Reuters pic<\/p>\n<p>The Juno detector is a large spherical tank filled with 20,000 tonnes of an organic liquid that emits light in the dark environment when particles including antineutrinos pass through it.<\/p>\n<p>Neutrinos are elementary particles, meaning they are not built \u2060of anything smaller, making them one of the universe\u2019s fundamental building blocks. Because neutrinos are electrically neutral, they are undisturbed by even the strongest magnetic field. As neutrinos travel through space, they pass unimpeded through matter \u2014 stars, planets and anything else.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists can trace them back to their \u2060source, and thus learn about some of the most energetic processes in the cosmos. They might be the key to understanding the origin of matter and its prevalence in the \u2060cosmos over its \u2060counterpart antimatter, the nature of dark matter and dark energy and the inner workings of supernovas.<\/p>\n<p>Wang said Juno will study neutrinos from the sun, Earth, the atmosphere and possibly a future supernova.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnormous numbers of neutrinos pass through the Earth every second, but only a tiny fraction interact. That is why experiments like Juno need very large detectors, deep underground sites, careful shielding and \u200clong-term stable operation,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>Juno, which cost more than US$300 million (RM1.2 billion), represents an international scientific collaboration. Wang said Juno, DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande are complementary efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey use different technologies and neutrino sources, so each brings a different perspective to some of the most important questions in neutrino physics. Together, they will provide a broader and more robust understanding of neutrino properties,\u201d Wang said. \u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First scientific results from Juno neutrino detector Most precise measurements yet of two neutrino aspects These subatomic particles&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[230086,230084,67864,18,19,17,10212,230085,133,3517],"class_list":["post-534830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-antineutrinos","tag-china-guangdong","tag-dune","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-juno","tag-neutrino-mass","tag-science","tag-supernova"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}