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What happens to the neutrinos next? Why are astrophysicists interested in detecting neutrinos from the Sun?

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Final answer:

Neutrinos from the Sun offer insight into its core because they travel directly to Earth, with about 3.5 x 10^16 solar neutrinos passing through each square meter of Earth's surface every second, carrying information about solar fusion processes.

Step-by-step explanation:

Astrophysicists are keen to detect neutrinos from the Sun because they can provide direct information about the solar interior. Neutrinos are produced in the core of the Sun during nuclear fusion and unlike other forms of radiation, they interact very weakly with matter, allowing them to escape the Sun and reach Earth almost unaltered. This quality enables scientists to study the processes occurring in the Sun's core. In 2020, the Borexino experiment detected neutrinos from the CNO cycle, revealing aspects of nuclear fusion that are prevalent in hotter and more massive stars than the Sun. Furthermore, scientists have determined that neutrinos possess a tiny amount of mass, challenging previous beliefs and prompting ongoing research to determine their mass more precisely. The energy transport mechanism by which neutrinos move from the core to the Sun's exterior is neither conduction nor convection, but instead, it is through radiation, as neutrinos carry about 3% of the energy generated by nuclear fusion away from the Sun.

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