South Pole Telescope Data Places Better Limit on Neutrino Mass

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South Pole Telescope Data Places Better Limit on Neutrino Mass

Posted by Unknown on Monday April 2, 2012 @05:58AM from the billions-of-years-in-the-making dept.

An anonymous reader writes an excerpt from a press release by the University of Chicago: "Analysis of data from the 10-meter South Pole Telescope is providing new support for the most widely accepted explanation of dark energy — the source of the mysterious force that is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe." The research resulted in three papers involving new constraints on the mass of neutrinos, a measurement of the angular power spectrum of the CMB, and a catalog of newly discovered galaxy clusters. The data lends a bit more support to the cosmological constant theory of dark energy.

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Source of dark energy by bonch · 2012-04-02 05:58 · Score: 0, Funny

Deeper analysis revealed the dark energy source is a large, repellent mass located in our solar system.
1. Re:Source of dark energy by game+kid · 2012-04-02 06:26 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  It's been developing for quite some time, apparently.
  
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  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
There's brazillions of them by wcrowe · 2012-04-02 06:04 · Score: 3, Funny

WTF is a "neutronio"?

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Proverbs 21:19
1. Re:There's brazillions of them by Unknown+Lamer · 2012-04-02 06:05 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I find spelling unpossile diffikult sometimes.
  
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  HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
2. Re:There's brazillions of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 06:10 · Score: 0
  
  It is a perfectly fine term in scientifc circles. it is a variant of neutrinos and yo can read more about it here http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutronio
3. Re:There's brazillions of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 06:26 · Score: 0
  
  It's the Italian word for Neutronium, a substance made entirely from neutrinos. Not the same thing.
4. Re:There's brazillions of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 06:28 · Score: 0
  
  Unlike the SI unit, the "metre".
  Seriously, please use meters to measure how many metres.
5. Re:There's brazillions of them by buchner.johannes · 2012-04-02 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  WTF is a "neutronio"?
  It goes in and out of the planet.
  
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  NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
6. Re:There's brazillions of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 06:47 · Score: 0
  
  It's the Italian word for Neutronium, a substance made entirely from neutrinos. Not the same thing.
  Neutronium is a proposed name for a substance composed purely of *neutrons*. Not the same thing.
7. Re:There's brazillions of them by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 07:18 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It's a press release from the University of Chicago. You should feel lucky it's not measured in rods or links.
8. Re:There's brazillions of them by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-04-02 09:00 · Score: 2
  
  All of my spelling and grammar are perfect in every way, just things are spelled differently in this dimension. We thought we had the rift closed before those creatures got through, but in fact we just popped out here, and let me tell you that was a surprise. Identical in every detail except spelling and grammar. God only knows whats going on back home, probably everyone is being eaten forever in the simulation spaces of the interlopers' minds, bit of a red face situation alright. Still, we'll get the experiment working properly next time.
9. Re:There's brazillions of them by tomhath · 2012-04-02 12:02 · Score: 1
  
  They were discovered by Italian astronauts, who are also known as specimens
10. Re:There's brazillions of them by axlr8or · 2012-04-02 13:58 · Score: 1
  
  it sounds like a funky dance move
Neutronio by GameboyRMH · 2012-04-02 06:04 · Score: 5, Funny

It's-a me, Neutronio!

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"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
1. Re:Neutronio by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 06:25 · Score: 0
  
  Racist!
"neutronio"? by macraig · 2012-04-02 06:04 · Score: 2

Is that a new Italian particle?
Jeez, Slashdot... please budget for editors who can proofread, okay?
lower limit on neutrino mass? by snoop.daub · 2012-04-02 07:06 · Score: 5, Interesting

The experiment reports a new upper limit on the neutrino mass. I've seen upper limit estimates before this one, but I don't ever recall seeing a lower limit reported on a direct measurement of the neutrino mass. Nonzero mass is a requirement in standard theories of neutrino oscillation but that's a consequence of the theory, not a direct measurement. Is there a direct measurement of a lower limit out there that I'm not aware of?
1. Re:lower limit on neutrino mass? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 07:29 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  There are measurements that can determine the difference in the neutrino masses, or some similar function (e.g. difference in their masses squared). This gives that at least one of the neutrinos has a mass of 0.04 eV, and a second one has to have a mass of at least 0.009 eV. It doesn't really give a lower bound on the smallest one, although there are some other estimates of their masses from cosmological and astronomical data.
Re:faggots bitching about the summary. by Beelzebud · 2012-04-02 07:25 · Score: 3, Funny

The rest of them still haven't figured out how to frame this in to an anti-tax rant.
South Pole. It figures by PPH · 2012-04-02 08:14 · Score: 3, Funny

There's nothing better to do there.
If the telescope was in Hawaii, they'd just put down any old number and hit the beach early. "Surf's up, dude!"

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Have gnu, will travel.
1. Re:South Pole. It figures by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-03 00:41 · Score: 0
  
  Clearly you are not aware of the orgies they have on south pole...
Any interference, possibly... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-02 22:48 · Score: 0

...from a can opener, maybe?