Neutrino - is the sun still shining?

Frank Close, gives an account of the most enigmatic particles in the universe, neutrinos.

Neutrinos are as near to nothing as anything we know, and so elusive that they are almost invisible. What are they? Why does nature need them? Prof Frank Close, OBE, gives an account of the most enigmatic particles in the universe, and explains why they are becoming of such interest to astrophysicists and cosmologists.

"With X rays, which penetrate much more than ordinary light, you can see inside your hand.
With neutrinos, which penetrate much more than X rays, you can look inside the Sun"

He explains the story of Nobel Prize winner Ray Davis who was the first man to look into the heart of a star. He did so by capturing neutrino, ghostly particles that are produced in the centre of the Sun and stream out across space. As you read this, billions of them are hurtling through your eyeballs at almost the speed of light, unseen.

Neutrinos are as near to nothing as anything we know and so elusive that they are almost invisible. Yet with clever technology we can now take pictures of the Sun in neutrino light. When he started most thought it would be impossible. It nearly turned out to be. 40 years would pass before he was proved right, leading to his Nobel Prize in 2002 aged 87. Longevity is an asset in the neutrino business; not everyone would be so lucky.

The real genius behind our modern understanding of the neutrino missed out on three Nobel Prizes - because he fled the UK to the Soviet Union, and didn’t survive to see his theories proved. Neutrinos are the shyest and most mysterious particles in the universe, and we are beginning to suspect that the humble neutrino may hold the secret to the disappearance of antimatter in the universe.

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