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How strange is the Earth's interior?

Asked by mattbrowne (31732points) June 27th, 2010

Today I found this very interesting article.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/antimatter-particles-geoneutrinos-underground-100625.html

Exotic antimatter particles have been detected deep within the Earth’s interior, scientists report. Studying these particles, which are thought to result from radioactive decay within Earth, could help scientists better understand how the flow of heat inside our planet affects surface events like volcanoes and earthquakes. The particles, called geoneutrinos, are made of a strange type of matter called antimatter, which has properties opposite those of regular matter. When a regular particle, like an electron, meets with its antimatter partner, called a positron, the two annihilate each other in an energetic explosion.

Geoneutrinos are the antimatter partners of neutrinos, which are very lightweight, neutrally charged particles that are created within the sun and when a cosmic ray strikes a normal atom. An earlier project called KamLAND in Japan found the first signs of possible geoneutrinos in 2005. Researchers in the Borexino collaboration at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics discovered the geoneutrinos inside a nylon sphere detector containing 1,000 tons of a hydrocarbon liquid. This sphere is encased within a larger stainless steel sphere in which an array of ultrasensitive photodetectors point at the inner nylon globe. Both of these layers are enclosed within a third 45-foot (13.7-m) diameter steel sphere holding 2,400 tons of highly purified water.

The whole experiment is buried nearly a mile (1.6 km) below the surface of the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy. All of these fortifications serve to shield the experiment from detecting anything other than neutrinos and geoneutrinos. These particles are incredibly difficult to find, because they pass through almost everything without interacting in any way. Over a whole year of searching for the elusive geoneutrinos, the experiment detected only a few signals. The detection of solar neutrinos, which produces a different pattern, is somewhat more common.

Any thoughts?

Can we expect more surprises when studying the interior of Earth?

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