What is NOvA (NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance) Experiment?

About NOvA (NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance):

• It is an experiment to study one of nature’s most elusive particles: neutrinos.
• It is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located outside of Chicago, United States of America.
  • Fermilab sends a beam of neutrinos 500 miles north to a 14,000-ton detector in Ash River, Minnesota.
  • By measuring the neutrinos and their antimatter partners, antineutrinos, in both locations, physicists can study how these particles change their type as they travel, a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation.
• NOvA aims to learn more about the ordering of neutrino masses.

What are Neutrinos?

• They are elementary subatomic particles with no electric charge, very little mass, and 1/2 unit of spin. 
• They travel at near light speeds.
• They belong to the family of particles called leptons, which are not subject to the strong force. 
• They are often called 'ghost particles' because they barely interact with anything else. 
• They are, however, the most common particle in the universe. Approximately 100 trillion neutrinos pass completely harmlessly through your body every second.
• Every time atomic nuclei come together (like in the sun) or break apart (like in a fission reactor or particle accelerator), they produce neutrinos.