Underground Experiment Confirms Fusion Powers the Sun

sciencehabit writes: Scientists have long believed that the power of the sun comes largely from the fusion of protons into helium, but now they can finally prove it (abstract). An international team of researchers using a detector buried deep below the mountains of central Italy has detected neutrinos—ghostly particles that interact only very reluctantly with matter—streaming from the heart of the sun. Other solar neutrinos have been detected before, but these particular ones come from the key proton-proton fusion reaction that is the first part of a chain of reactions that provides 99% of the sun's power.

Comments

Underground?

[Anonymous Coward]

But how the hell did they manage to coax the Sun underground, in order to conduct this experiment?

One of these days, I'm going to RTFA.

Re:Thought that was obvious... ?

[Anonymous Coward]

it caught me by surprise as well. but thinking about it more it's mind blowing to think that there are a lot of things we take as fact when they may just be assertions. like fusion powering the sun, for example. I call this the Wikipedia phallacy.

I think (hope) you mean "fallacy"...

No, he has it right. By analogy with "democracy", "oligarchy", "anarchy", and so forth, naturally Wikipedia is a "phallacy" since it's quite well established that many of the editors there who run the place are pricks.

Underground Eureeka!

[Tablizer]

Making huge discoveries about the universe without leaving mom's basement? Nerdgasm!