China has switched on the world’s largest and most sensitive neutrino observatory—an enormous underground laboratory built to capture and analyze the universe’s most elusive “ghost particles.”
The state-of-the-art spherical detector, constructed with a giant acrylic dome and filled with 20,000 tonnes of liquid scintillator, is already logging around 50 subatomic events each day.
A project spokesperson noted: “As the experiment enters its critical early data collection phase, our top priority is ensuring the accuracy of our readings, so we cannot yet comment on preliminary results.”
Wang Yifang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences added: “By determining the hierarchy of neutrino mass, we can refine models for particle physics, cosmology, and ultimately deepen our understanding of the universe.”
The observatory recorded its first neutrino interaction events during initial calibration and is being monitored remotely by more than 700 international physicists.
Why Neutrinos Matter
The central goal of the project is to determine the precise mass ordering of neutrinos—a breakthrough that could explain the imbalance between matter and antimatter that allowed the universe to exist.
Neutrinos, first theorized in 1930, are nearly massless subatomic particles that pass through most matter undetected. Despite their elusiveness, they are crucial to understanding stellar fusion, supernova explosions, and the very structure of the cosmos.
Scientists anticipate statistically significant results within the next six years as trillions of neutrinos continue streaming invisibly through Earth—and even through the human body—every second.
