[release]An international team working below an Italian mountain has detected subatomic particles hanging out beneath the Earth's surface, where they may very well be affecting things like earthquakes and volcanoes.
Geoneutrinos -- which are anti-neutrinos -- result from the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and potassium in the Earth's crust and mantle. Like their regular-matter counterparts, geoneutrinos are chargeless and tiny, passing through matter almost undisturbed. Regular neutrinos are emitted by the sun and cosmic rays.
The Borexino experiment at Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory was actually designed to watch for regular neutrinos, but scientists at Princeton University, part of an 88-member team, realized it could also look for subterranean subatomic particles. Geoneutrinos were first studied in 2005.
The Borexino study, published in the April issue of Physical Review Letters B, contains data from two years of observations, according to a Princeton news release. Geoneutrinos and neutrinos are hard to detect because they are so small and just barely interact with other matter, so it takes a long time to make just a handful of observations.
Earth scientists would like to know more about how decaying elements like uranium and thorium affect the planet's temperatures and cause convection in its mantle. Convection is the steady flow of hot rock deep in the Earth that drives plate tectonics -- the movement of continents, seafloor spreading, volcanoes and earthquakes. Scientists don't know whether radioactive decay drives the heating action, or is one of several factors.
At the observatory, scientists look for neutrinos by examining a lot of liquid. When the neutrinos hit the detector, tiny heat changes happen, and those observations allow scientists to indirectly detect the neutrinos.
The detector consists of nested spheres, containing thousands of tons of hydrocarbon liquid and highly purified water. An array of sensitive photodetectors watches for the telltale signals of solar neutrinos and geoneutrinos.
Scientists can imagine a day when a network of geoneutrino-detecting facilities, located at strategic spots around the globe, can sense particles to better understand the Earth's interior dynamics. Data about Earth's internal heat could one day provide enough information to predict volcano eruptions and earthquakes, according to the Princeton news release.[/release]
[url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/scientists-spot-geoneutrinos-which-might-help-drive-earths-internal-heat[/url]
Durr Hurr 2012 newtrinos cause end of wurld :downs:
I'm not feeling hot about this.
I didn't see anything about 2012.
Journey to the centre of the nuclear reactor.
Wait.
So the anti particle counter part of neutrinos are formed in our planets core?
:science:
Nutrinos are incredibly weakly interacting, not enough to power the earths heat.
Besides, I thought we already had enough evidence to say that it was radioactive decay heating the earth.
Combining these Geoneutrinos and neutrinos would create some nice energy, wouldn't it?
[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);22798234]Combining these Geoneutrinos and neutrinos would create some nice energy, wouldn't it?[/QUOTE]
And how exactly do you prepose you do that? They are weakly interacting and fucking TINY.
[QUOTE=BrainDeath;22798220]Nutrinos are incredibly weakly interacting, not enough to power the earths heat.
Besides, I thought we already had enough evidence to say that it was radioactive decay heatin the earth.[/QUOTE]
Well with the amount of neutrinos released from the sun that pass through the earth, if geoneutrinos are anti particles then with the concentrations present it seems likely that they could annihilate.
Maybe not provide all the heat of course but provide some of the heat.
I was under the impression any anti-matter touching matter would immediately disintegrate eachother. Huh.
Also, same way fusion works. e=mc^2..even the tiniest things create a fuckton of energy.
Eh no.
Matter + corresponding anti particle = energy
and this is is different from fusion, these would annihilate into raw energy, where as self sustaining fusion is by fusing nuclei together, which relases energy as heat and light, and a neutron if its hydrogen fusion as far as I remember.
[QUOTE=bravehat;22798378]Eh no.
Matter + corresponding anti particle = energy
and this is is different from fusion, these would annihilate into raw energy, where as self sustaining fusion is by fusing nuclei together, which relases energy as heat and light, and a neutron if its hydrogen fusion as far as I remember.[/QUOTE]
Well from the way my science teacher explained it, two small atoms fusing releases a bit of its mass as energy. Yes, heat energy, but energy nonetheless. If matter/antimatter completely annihilates eachother, wouldn't that be a bit more than fusion?
[QUOTE=bravehat;22798215]Wait.
So the anti particle counter part of neutrinos are formed in our planets core?
:science:[/QUOTE]
But anti-nuetrinos are formed all the time in radioactive decay (beta)
I thought the fact that there's unstable isotopes on Earth and that radiation heats things up was already well documented.
I call bullshit, anti-neutrinos like their normal matter cousins react far to weakly to produce heat. If anything, this could just mean that the earth is far more isotopically active than previously thought.
[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);22798433]Well from the way my science teacher explained it, two small atoms fusing releases a bit of its mass as energy. Yes, heat energy, but energy nonetheless. If matter/antimatter completely annihilates eachother, wouldn't that be a bit more than fusion?[/QUOTE]
I didn't say it didn't :raise:
I'm just saying that they are different from each other, and heat energy is fairly useless from a power generating point of view, entropy is a bitch.
Cancel my Chemistry test next week. It will be wrong.
Earth's core temperature is 6329 °C, now go detect earthquakes, Princeton news.
[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);22798234]Combining these Geoneutrinos and neutrinos would create some nice energy, wouldn't it?[/QUOTE]
No, it wouldn't.
Neutrinos are ridiculously tiny. If a million of them went through your body right now, only a handful of them would hit you.
[QUOTE=Sector 7;22800591]No, it wouldn't.
Neutrinos are ridiculously tiny. If a million of them went through your body right now, only a handful of them would hit you.[/QUOTE]
think of it as a chemical reaction with one side in excess (neutrinos) if you fire enough of them in the direction of the anti particle they will annihilate eventually.
[QUOTE=bravehat;22801131]think of it as a chemical reaction with one side in excess (neutrinos) if you fire enough of them in the direction of the anti particle they will annihilate eventually.[/QUOTE]
Need a way to contain them though.
Neutrinos sounds delicious.
[QUOTE=Ban Evasion Alt;22801197]Need a way to contain them though.[/QUOTE]
Nah I'm not saying we should do that, just saying how they could annihilate underground. :v:
I'd say any other product of nuclear decay results in more energy though, but you're right.
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