(Every day until Christmas, I’ll be posting a science-related image.)
Day 13
![This image is the Sun, but it wasn't created using light. In addition to photons, the Sun also emits a huge number of neutrinos, very low-mass particles produced by nuclear fusion in the Sun's core. [Credit: Kamioka Observatory/ICRR/Univ. of Tokyo]](https://sciencevspseudoscience.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sun_in_neutrinos.jpg?w=500&h=263)
This image is the Sun, but it wasn’t created using light. In addition to photons, the Sun also emits a huge number of neutrinos, very low-mass particles produced by nuclear fusion in the Sun’s core. [Credit: Kamioka Observatory/ICRR/Univ. of Tokyo]
The image above is of the Sun in neutrinos, collected by the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan. The detector (often called SuperK) is located deep underground in a mine, to limit the number of extraneous particles entering it. Neutrinos aren’t bothered by puny matters like miles of rock, which stop wimpier particles like electrons and protons. In fact, this image was at night, when the Sun was on the opposite side of the planet, so the neutrinos forming the picture passed all the way through Earth.
Astronomy is not limited to what our eyes can see—and is not even limited by light. The invisible is made visible through science.