Solar energy for the first time measured

Solar energy for the first time measured directly after its creation

For the first time in the history of solar research, scientists have managed to measure the solar energy at the moment of their production in the solar interior. Physicists of the Borexino collaboration observed in the Italian Gran Sasso underground laboratory for the first time those neutrinos directly, resulting from the fusion of two hydrogen nuclei and the concomitant formation of heavy hydrogen. Their results are the researchers, including physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), presented in the current issue of “Nature”.

15 million degrees Celsius — so hot it is inside our sun. There are various fusion reactions take place. 99 percent of the energy generated by a fusion cycle, fuse two hydrogen atoms to form a nucleus of heavy hydrogen at the beginning. In this cycle, energy is released, which brings the sun to emit light (sunlight). It also generates electrically neutral elementary particle, the neutrino.

Radiation reaches the surface after more than a hundred thousand years
Previous analyzes of solar energy based on measurements of the solar radiation. However, this requires, on average, more than one hundred thousand years to go from the interior of the sun-tight at its surface. This means that the calculated values ​​correspond to the energy that was released over a hundred thousand years ago in the interior of the Sun.

Behave quite differently neutrinos: Because neutrinos hardly come as electrically neutral elementary particles interact with other matter and can therefore move freely, they also leave the solar interior a few seconds after its production and will arrive after about eight minutes Erde.Die same properties that allow the particles to leave the solar interior as fast, but also make it extremely difficult to measure the neutrinos from the sun energy is crucial for the nuclear reaction. “The recently published observation was only possible because Borexino is the most sensitive detector world and could be greatly reduced, we disturbances by radiation and other cosmic particles”, says Prof. Dr. Stefan Schönert. “In addition to solar neutrinos, we can therefore observe neutrinos from the Earth’s interior and tested using these data geophysical models,” adds Prof. Dr. Lothar Oberauer. Both scientists work at the TUM Department of Experimental Astroparticle Physics.

Energy release in the solar interior for a long time unchanged
The new results allow for the first time, demonstrate experimentally that the energy release in the solar interior is unchanged for a very long time. The researchers compared the values ​​of the actual solar energy, which can be measured using the new method now, with which the solar energy of over one hundred thousand years, which can be calculated from solar radiation. The result of the comparison is consistent with current theoretical models sun.

The scientists of the Borexino Collaboration have also further ambitious plans: Over the next four years, the recent measurements should be further improved and new neutrino observations are carried out. In particular, a new experiment is currently being prepared to search for new particles, so-called sterile neutrinos. Their existence would have fundamental implications for particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.