What exactly is a Neutrino?

Question

Every time I hear about it I think about the Starwars midi-chlorians.

Answer 1

They really have nothing in common with the midi-chlorians. Neutrinos are elementary particles that don't have any electrical charge, like Neutrons. Unlike Neutrons, though, they interact very little with ordinary matter and are very difficult to detect. That's all you really need to know. There's more, like how they have different 'flavors', but that's not necessary to answer this question.

Answer 2

don't ask. just...don't.

Answer 3

They're neutral leptons with little (if any) rest mass and almost no interaction with other matter.

Answer 4

Neutrinos are elementary particles that travel close to the speed of light, lack an electric charge, are able to pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed and are thus extremely difficult to detect. As of 1999, it is believed neutrinos have a minuscule, but nonzero mass. They are usually denoted by the Greek letter  (nu).

Neutrinos are created as a result of certain types of radioactive decay or nuclear reactions such as those that take place in the Sun, in nuclear reactors, or when cosmic rays hit atoms. There are three types, or "flavors", of neutrinos: electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos; each type also has an antimatter partner, called an antineutrino. Electron neutrinos or antineutrinos are generated whenever neutrons change into protons or vice versa, the two forms of beta decay. Interactions involving neutrinos are generally mediated by the weak force.

Most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the sun, and more than 50 trillion solar electron neutrinos pass through the human body every second.

Answer 5

Its an invention of Fermi back in the 1930s.

Answer 6

Neutrinos are elementary particles that travel close to the speed of light, lack an electric charge, are able to pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed and are thus extremely difficult to detect. As of 1999, it is believed neutrinos have a minuscule, but nonzero mass.

Nuclear reactors are the major source of human-generated neutrinos.

Solar neutrinos originate from the nuclear fusion powering the sun and other stars. The details of the operation of the sun are explained by the Standard Solar Model. In short: when four protons fuse to become one helium nucleus, two of them have to convert into neutrons, and each such conversion releases one electron neutrino

Answer 7

Neutrino, very small particles with no electric charge and little or no mass. Neutrinos are elementary particles—that is, they cannot be broken into smaller particles. Neutrinos are so small that they pass right through most material. One important kind of neutrino is created in the nuclear reactions that give the Sun its energy. The Sun produces so many neutrinos that 70 billion neutrinos pass through every square centimeter (0.15 sq in) of the surface of Earth every second. Scientists study neutrinos to learn more about the reactions that give the Sun its energy. Similar reactions occur in radioactive substances, or materials made up of atoms that spontaneously change into other particles (Radioactivity). Neutrinos also help scientists understand these radioactive reactions. Neutrinos play an important part in the theory scientists have developed to explain the elementary particles that make up all matter and energy.

Answer 8

A neutrino is a very very small particle, much smaller than a neutron but posses very similar qualities.  It is not a form of electromagnetic radiation but it behaves in such a manner as it travels in waves near the speed of light.  These particles are so small that they interact with ordinary matter only very rarely.  Put it this way, they are so small that almost all of them can pass through the entire earth without ever striking an atomic nucleus!  That is just amazing!

Answer 9

A lepton! There 3 are types of neutrinos: electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino.

Answer 10

Neutrinos are subatomic particles which carry no electrical charge. There are three types: the electron neutrino, the muon neutrino, and the tau neutrino. They are in the family of leptons.

Neutrinos are created in the radioactive decay of primordial elements, in nuclear reactions, and when cosmic rays strike atoms. They have very little - if any - mass which allows them to travel through matter. And they travel near the speed of light.

They interact at subatomic levels with the weak force.