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Article: Counting neutrinos from an 'artificial sun.'
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- January 7, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The nuclear fusion reactions that power the sun produce huge quantities of neutrinos. Experiments designed to detect these elusive, weakly interacting particles provide a glimpse deep into the sun's core, where these reactions take place.
Over the last few years, however, several Earth-based neutrino detectors have found fewer solar neutrinos than scientists had expected, based on theoretical models of how the sun generates energy (SN: 6/13/92, p.388). That deficit has proved an enduring puzzle.
Now, researchers participating in the GALLEX solar neutrino project have completed an important check on the efficiency of their neutrino detector and have raised some ...