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JUNO Publishes First Results and Achieves Record Precision on Neutrino Oscillations

The measurements validate the new underground detector's performance without resolving which neutrino mass state is lightest or heaviest.

Overview

  • The JUNO Collaboration published its first peer-reviewed paper in Nature on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, reporting results from the experiment's initial run.
  • The results come from roughly 59 days of data taken after the detector began operations last August and show about a 1.6-times improvement in precision for two neutrino oscillation parameters.
  • JUNO's 20,000-ton spherical liquid-scintillator detector, buried about 650–700 meters underground and instrumented with tens of thousands of light sensors, performed as designed and delivered usable physics data.
  • The study explicitly does not determine the neutrino mass ordering, meaning it cannot yet say which of the three neutrino mass states is lightest or heaviest.
  • JUNO will continue long-term measurements of reactor, solar and geoneutrinos and its findings will be cross-checked with complementary experiments such as DUNE in the United States and Hyper-Kamiokande in Japan over the coming decade.