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The NOvA experiment is helping scientists to study the properties of neutrinos.
- NovA (NuMI Off-axis 𝜈e Appearance) is located in United States and few Indian Institutes are also part of it.
Key Finding
- Neutrinos come in three varieties: muon, electron and tau.
- New NOvA results suggest there are two lighter neutrinos and a heavier one.
About Neutrino
- In 1930, physicist Wolfgang Pauli hypothesized the existence of a particle like the neutrino.
- Nature: A type of subatomic particle and don’t have electric charge and have a small mass.
- Second-most abundant particles after photons (particles of light) and the most abundant among particles that make up matter.
- Detectability: Difficult to detect as they interact rarely with other particles.
- Also known as Ghost Particle.
- Neutrino oscillation: In it, a neutrino born as one flavor (electron, muon, or tau neutrino) will eventually morph into the other varieties as it travels.
- E.g., Electron neutrinos emitted by the Sun transform into muon and tau neutrinos as it reaches earth.
- Sources: Generally produced when leptons interact with matter.
- It can obtained from both natural (Cosmological neutrinos (the Big-bang), etc.) and man-made (Reactor neutrinos (during fission), etc.) sources.
Key Significance of Studying Neutrinos
Key Observatories
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