Neutrinos are some of the most surprising and elusive particles in the Universe. ( Credit: Centro Atomico Bariloche/Pieck Dario) The neutrinos (or more accurately, antineutrinos) first hypothesized by Pauli in 1930 were detected from a similar nuclear reactor in 1956. Reactor nuclear experimental RA-6 (Republica Argentina 6), en marcha, showing the characteristic Cherenkov radiation from the faster-than-light-in-water particles emitted. These leftover relics - the light elements formed in the Big Bang, the relic photons from the primordial plasma, and the large-scale structure of the Universe - would, along with the cosmic expansion of the Universe, form the four cornerstones of the Big Bang. First atomic nuclei would form from protons and neutrons, then neutral atoms would form, and then gravitation would lead to stars, galaxies, and the grand structures of the cosmic web. At the earliest times of all, you’d make all the particles and antiparticles possible, including the fundamental ones that we cannot create at our low energies today.Īs time went forward, the Universe would cool, expand, and gravitate all together. You could go back as far as you can imagine: before humans, before the stars, before there were even neutral atoms. If the Universe is expanding today, then we can extrapolate back, earlier and earlier, to when it was smaller, younger, denser, and hotter. The idea of the Big Bang has captivated the imagination of humanity since it was first proposed.
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