Inside China's secret lab rewriting our understanding of the universe

"Deep underneath a granite hill in southern China, an enormous detector is sniffing out the secrets of the universe. This futuristic underground observatory has been built with the sole purpose of detecting neutrinos - tiny cosmic particles with a mind-bogglingly small mass. To date, nobody knows what these 'ghost particles' are or how they work. But scientists hope this $300 million lab will be able to answer these questions - vital to understanding the building blocks of the universe."

"Neutrinos bump into other particles only very rarely so to up their chances of catching a collision, physicists have to think big. This is where the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory comes in. The detector, built in Kaiping in China, took over nine years to build, Its location 2,300ft (700m) underground protects it from cosmic rays and radiation that could throw off its neutrino detection abilities."

"The orb-shaped structure is filled with a liquid designed to emit light when neutrinos pass through. These will flow into the detector from two nearby nuclear power stations. The sphere - a thin bubble of acrylic - is contained within a protective cylinder containing 45,000 tonnes of pure water. These neutrinos will 'bump' into protons in the detector, releasing tiny flashes of light at a rate of about 50 per day."

An underground observatory beneath a granite hill in southern China houses a large detector built to capture neutrinos. The facility cost about $300 million and sits 700m underground to shield it from cosmic rays and radiation. The spherical acrylic detector contains a scintillating liquid that emits light when neutrinos interact; the sphere sits within a cylinder holding 45,000 tonnes of pure water. Neutrinos will arrive from two nearby nuclear power stations and occasionally collide with protons, producing tiny flashes of light. The detector aims to observe about 50 neutrino interaction flashes per day and determine the ordering of neutrino masses.

Read at Mail Online