China launches world's largest detector to find 'ghost particles'

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - China on Tuesday launched the world's largest transparent spherical detector for elusive “ghost particles” called neutrinos, state media reported.

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (Juno) - the world's first operational ultra-large scientific facility dedicated to neutrino research with ultra-high precision - was launched in southern Guangdong province, Beijing-based Xinhua News reported.

Housed at the center of a 44-meter-deep water pool, located 700 meters below ground, the giant facility has started collecting data for its mission to track the mysterious particles with no electrical charge, very little mass, and moving at near-light speed.

Approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, Juno's trial operation showed that key performance indicators met or exceeded design expectations, positioning it to address one of the major questions in particle physics this decade: the ordering of neutrino masses.

"Completing the filling of the Juno detector and starting data taking marks a historic milestone. For the first time, we have put into operation a detector of this scale and precision dedicated to neutrinos," said Wang Yifang, Juno's spokesperson and a researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"It will allow us to answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter and the universe," Wang added.

Juno will also enable modern studies of neutrinos from the Sun, supernovae, the atmosphere, and Earth.

Juno is hosted by the IHEP and involves more than 700 researchers from 74 institutions across 17 countries and regions, according to the IHEP.

*Writing by Aamir Latif