Borexino bags geoneutrinos
Physicists working at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy have detected electron antineutrinos created by radioactive decays within Earth's crust and mantle. This result builds on earlier evidence for such "geoneutrinos" obtained by a Japanese experiment five years ago and paves the way to new direct measurements of processes taking place deep inside our planet.
The Borexino stainless steel sphere during construction
Physicists have long studied neutrinos emitted by the Sun and created by cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere. These observations have improved our understanding of solar physics and revealed that neutrinos – chargeless, extremely inert fundamental particles – have a very tiny mass. Theory also predicts that neutrinos, or more precisely electron antineutrinos, are produced inside the Earth by radioactive decay of certain nuclei. Measuring the flux of these geoneutrinos should reveal how much of the energy generated inside the Earth is due to radioactive decays and
