So one of the reasons that I've been so busy recently is that I recently got a job at my local physics department on a collaboration called Boreixno; and it occurred to me that it would make a pretty good subject for a post.
A bit of context, the principle thing studied in this experiment is a thing called a neutrino. And what these neutrinos are, are tiny virtually mass less particles (which have never been measured in accuracy). Neutrinos are only affected by the weak nuclear force (the force that governs radioactive decay) and gravity. And they are created through special types of radioactive decay, or nuclear reactions. Most neutrinos on Earth come from the Sun, and that's where I come in.
Borexino is an experiment set out to study low energy solar neutrinos. The idea is to measure neutrino flux from the sun and compare it to what is theoretically predicted by The Standard Model, and by comparison scientists will better understand the internal nuclear fusion process of stars, which as you may or may not know essentially behaves like a giant nuclear reactor.
Borexino is also a part of the Supernova Early Warning System, which is a network of neutrino detectors designed to warn astronomers when a supernova is imminent. This is because when a star collapses on itself, it forms enormous amounts of neutrinos before the explosion, allowing astronomers to locate a supernova within our galaxy several hours before the actual explosion.
