Hey science squad! Big news from the Chinese mainland: the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) just wrapped up filling its massive 20,000-tonne liquid scintillator detector and officially kicked off data-taking! 🤩🔬
After over a decade of prep, JUNO is the first of a new wave of ultra-large neutrino experiments to hit this milestone. Initial trial runs show its key metrics are smashing design expectations—think of it like your fav flagship smartphone outperforming benchmarks! 🚀📈
So, what’s the buzz? JUNO’s main goal is to solve a major puzzle in particle physics: the ordering of neutrino masses. Neutrinos come in three mass states (ν₁, ν₂, ν₃), and scientists still don’t know which one is the heaviest. JUNO’s high-precision setup is here to reveal whether ν₃ outweighs ν₂ or not, unlocking clues about the universe’s secrets. ⚛️🧩
"Completing the filling of the JUNO detector and starting data taking marks a historic milestone," said Professor Wang Yifang, spokesperson for JUNO and researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "For the first time, we have in operation a detector of this scale and precision dedicated to neutrinos. JUNO will allow us to answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter and the universe."
Stay tuned as JUNO dives into data collection—this experiment could reshape our understanding of the cosmos! 🌌✨
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
