[ad_1]
With a detector in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, researchers have detected for the first time the neutrinos that are created in stars during a special fusion process.
A so-called filament is formed during a solar flare. The photo was taken on August 31, 2012 by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of the US space agency NASA.
Photo: Nasa, SDO, AIA
A detector is installed about 1400 meters below the peaks of the Gran Sasso massif in Italian Abruzzo, with which astronomers can look directly into the heart of the sun. This is the first time they demonstrate a process predicted some 80 years ago by which the sun generates energy in its core.
Because it’s?
In nuclear fusion within the sun, hydrogen is usually fused directly to form helium. This is where the sun draws most of its energy. But there is another indirect process. The elements carbon, nitrogen and oxygen act as catalysts for the fusion of hydrogen with helium. According to the English names of these elements – Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen –, the process is known as the CNO cycle. This process has now been tried for the first time.
Source link
