On August 26, 2025, the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) successfully filled its 20,000-ton liquid scintillator detector and started taking data, marking the official operation of the facility. As the world's first large-scale, ultra-precision neutrino experiment of its kind, JUNO is set to address fundamental questions regarding the nature of matter and the universe. The details are as follows:Solving the Neutrino Mass Ordering Problem: JUNO is situated 700 meters underground in Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong, and is 53 kilometers away from the Taishan and Yangjiang nuclear power plants. This location enables it to detect antineutrinos from the nuclear power plants and measure their energy spectrum with unprecedented precision. One of the key scientific objectives of JUNO is to determine the neutrino mass ordering, that is, to figure out whether the third neutrino ($\nu_3$) is heavier than the second ($\nu_2$). Unlike similar international experiments, JUNO's determination of the mass order is not affected by the Earth's matter effect and other unknown neutrino oscillation parameters, and it will significantly improve the accuracy of three out of the six neutrino oscillation parameters.Conducting Frontier Research on Various Neutrinos: JUNO can carry out frontier research on neutrinos from the sun, supernovae, the atmosphere, and the Earth. It will open a new window for exploring unknown physics, including the search for inactive neutrinos and proton decay.Potential for Upgrading to Detect Neutrino Absolute Mass: With a designed service life of 30 years, JUNO can be upgraded to the world's most sensitive neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment in the future. Such an upgrade will allow for the detection of the absolute mass of neutrinos and the verification of whether neutrinos are Majorana particles, thus addressing frontier cross-cutting issues in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology and profoundly influencing our understanding of the universe.
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