Blasting Neutrinos Under Wisconsin May Yield Big Payoff

08-16-2009 • Washington Post

Make that under Wisconsin. Because the Earth is round, anyone wishing to send an object in a straight line from one spot on the planet to another spot 500 miles away must aim through the planet itself.

Here's where the really weird physics kick in: Neutrinos blast right through the Earth with nary a spark. They interact so rarely and so weakly with normal matter that they can zip right through solid rock as though it were not even there -- much like light through a clear glass window. That's why, contrary to the hopes of some private contractors who heard about a big new experiment under construction, Fermilab does not need to dig a tunnel underneath Wisconsin.

1 Comments in Response to Blasting Neutrinos Under Wisconsin May Yield Big Payoff

Comment by PureTrust

Entered on: 8/17/2009 10:58:25 PM

If you had a big rock sitting on your head, would you feel "weighted down?"

If you had a bunch of big rocks sitting on you, would they "squish" you?

Since the material a couple thousand miles down below the surface of the earth has lots and lots of rocks sitting on it, do you think that maybe they are squished big time?

If rocks are squished big time, doesn't it stand to reason that they might be compressed and compacted by the tremendous weight of all those rocks above them? And if they are compacted, aren't they more dense? And if they are more dense, isn't it reasonable to think that they might be struck by more nutrinos?

When a nutrino strikes a piece of material, doesn't it make that material a tiny bit warmer? And if the material is dense enough that it can be struck by many nutrinos, might it not become hot, or even very hot if it is dense enough?

I wonder where all that internal earth heat comes from.

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