{"id":11453,"date":"2025-07-05T23:16:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T20:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uni-mag.gr\/?p=11453"},"modified":"2025-07-28T18:49:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:49:43","slug":"team-nai-neutrinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uni-mag.gr\/en\/team-nai-neutrinos\/","title":{"rendered":"TEAM NAI: NEUTRINOS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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TEAM NAI: NEUTRINOS<\/h2>\n\n
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Irini Sakelliou<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Adrianos<\/strong>: I know very well that neutrinos are tiny particles like the electron in an atom.<\/p>\n\n

At the moment (2019), three \u201cflavors\u201d of neutrinos have been discovered: the muon neutrino (symbol \u03bd\u03bc), the electron neutrino (symbol \u03bde), and the tau neutrino (\u03bd\u03c4). We still don\u2019t know what else might show up! <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli: <\/strong>Three ice cream cones! And we know there are more: chocolate, stracciatella, vanilla\u2026 <\/p>\n\n

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Adrianos<\/strong>: Sweets again? You need to understand that the question of why we\u2019re made of matter and not antimatter is very serious. <\/p>\n\n

At the beginning of the universe, when matter was created, the same amount of antimatter should have been created too.<\/p>\n\n

98 Ianthi: <\/strong>So somewhere out there in the universe, there must be an anti-98 Ianthi and an anti-431 Nefeli? We better be careful not to hug our anti-selves! <\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: You’re absolutely right. If 98 Ianthi and anti-98 Ianthi met, there would be a huge explosion, and both would be annihilated. <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli:<\/strong> But that doesn\u2019t happen in the universe. We know everything and everyone is made of matter. <\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: Exactly. We haven\u2019t discovered anything made entirely of antimatter. This imbalance between matter and antimatter might be explained by neutrinos. <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli: <\/strong>Now I get why so many experiments try to detect neutrinos!<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: There’s one even in Greece, just outside Pylos. Shall we go find some neutrinos too? <\/p>\n\n

Team NAI sets off for Pylos to discover neutrinos. They also want to understand why detecting them and measuring their properties is so important. <\/p>\n\n

98 Ianthi:<\/strong> Adrianos, do you know where the neutrinos that reach Earth come from?<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos:<\/strong> Mostly from the Sun. As it turns hydrogen into heavier elements, neutrinos are produced. These neutrinos leave the Sun undisturbed and reach Earth. There are other ways neutrinos can be produced, but the Sun is the main source. <\/p>\n\n

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Photo of the Sun in X-rays. The bright areas indicate regions of intense magnetic activity. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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431 Nefeli:<\/strong> Adrianos, let\u2019s grab our little buckets and go collect neutrinos!<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: Where would you even find them? They don\u2019t interact with anything \u2014 that\u2019s how they pass through everything. Light can\u2019t get through the densest regions of the universe, but neutrinos can! How will you convince them to sit inside your bucket? <\/p>\n\n

98 Ianthi: <\/strong>True, they\u2019re really hard to detect. But don\u2019t crush my dreams. Isn\u2019t that why we came to Pylos? To find and detect neutrinos? We want to see the giant neutrino telescope here. <\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: Girls, listen \u2014 over a few trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second. Same for mine. We\u2019d be extremely lucky if our bodies ever \u201cnotice\u201d even a handful of them during our entire lifetime. <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli<\/strong>: Did you bring your snorkel and flippers, Adrianos? We might need to dive into the sea. <\/p>\n\n

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Off the coast of Pylos lies the deepest point of the Mediterranean \u2014 the Hellenic Trench. That\u2019s where Nestor<\/strong>, the neutrino telescope, is located. There are two more similar neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean: NEMO<\/strong> near Sicily and ANTARES<\/strong> near Toulon, France. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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Adrianos<\/strong>: There are other similar neutrino telescopes placed deep in the sea or inside the ice in Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n

98 Ianthi: <\/strong>Adrianos, do you understand how neutrinos are detected?<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: To detect a neutrino, it has to collide with a particle that has an electric charge \u2014 either positive or negative. After the collision, the charged particle starts moving really fast. As it moves, it emits light. That light is what neutrino telescopes detect. <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli:<\/strong> So that\u2019s how scientists know a neutrino passed by?<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: Exactly! You’re getting it!<\/p>\n\n

98 Ianthi:<\/strong> And to increase the chances of a neutrino colliding with a charged particle, we need to have a lot of charged particles in its path.<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: That\u2019s probably why these telescopes are placed deep in the sea or in Antarctic ice \u2014 and also to reduce noise. <\/p>\n\n

431 Nefeli:<\/strong> That\u2019s also how the neutrino telescope near Pylos works, right?<\/p>\n\n

Adrianos: <\/strong>That Greek telescope is called Nestor. As shown in the picture, it consists of twelve \u201cfloors.\u201d Each floor is a hexagonal structure shaped like a star. Each floor has round \u201ceyes,\u201d and each eye contains a camera. These cameras record the light emitted by a charged particle. <\/p>\n\n

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The girls<\/strong>: You speak in such complicated ways, Adrianos! Where did you learn all this? Do you actually understand it? <\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: I just like learning! For example, I read that in a similar experiment (IceCube in Antarctica), scientists detected 19 neutrinos from the object SN 1987A. Nineteen neutrinos! And they came from our neighboring galaxy. That galaxy is 163,000 light-years away \u2014 that\u2019s 15,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers! So those 19 neutrinos traveled all that way and were finally detected in 2017 in Antarctic ice. <\/p>\n\n

The girls: <\/strong>We hope Nestor finds some neutrinos too. But we think it\u2019s not operating anymore\u2026 <\/p>\n\n

Adrianos<\/strong>: I\u2019ll ask and let you know. While you wait for an answer, watch this video. You can turn on Greek subtitles so it\u2019s easier to understand! <\/p>\n\n

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