Guangzhou, October 11, 2024 (Xinhua) – China has built the world’s largest transparent spherical detector 700 meters underground to capture the elusive neutrinos, often known as “ghost particles,” to reveal the secrets of the infinitely small and infinitely vast universe.
The spherical device, which extends over 12 floors and has a diameter of 35.4 meters, is located deep in a layer of granite in a hill in Kaiping, Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province, southern China, and is considered the main part of the underground Jiangmen Neutrino Observatory, which is a giant and complex scientific facility.
The Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the leading institution in the aforementioned project, said that the construction work on the important project launched by the Academy and the Guangdong government in 2015 has entered the final stage, while the installation of the entire device is expected to be completed by the end of next November. Full operation of the facility in August 2025.
As one of the world’s most powerful experiments to uncover the secrets of neutrinos, the project is expected to operate for at least 30 years. The observatory is designed to help scientists form a better understanding of the neutrino mass hierarchy by detecting neutrinos from nuclear power reactors from the Yangjiang and Taishan stations. For close-in energies with an unprecedented accuracy of 3 percent, said Wang Yifang, the project’s chief scientist and head of the previously mentioned Institute of High Energy Physics.
Wang added that understanding the neutrino mass hierarchy could have huge implications for physical models of the universe and for research on cosmic evolution.
The facility will also help scientists conduct other pioneering studies such as monitoring supernovae and atmospheric and solar neutrinos.
