Neutrinos from the Sun CNO Something Weird
Seeing our Sun with a strange detector - and The Cosmic Companion Store launches for Black Friday!
Neutrinos from the Sun show our parent star is undergoing CNO fusion. Here’s what makes the discovery so weird.
By James Maynard
Most people realize our Sun is producing light and heat from the fusion of hydrogen into helium. However, the process of merging together hydrogen nuclei into helium is not as straightforward as it might seem.
Typically, there are two processes by which smaller stars create fusion. The first of these, the proton-proton (pp) reaction is the simpler, as well as the more common, of the two. The second, the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen (CNO) cycle, is thought to be the predominant means of producing energy in hotter, more massive stars.
However, a new study finds neutrinos from the Sun providing the first direct evidence of the CNO cycle taking place deep within our parent star.
Read more: https://thecosmiccompanion.net/neutrinos-from-the-sun-cno-something-weird
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