Skip to content

Space

Physicists want to drill a 5-kilometre-deep hole on the moon

Going deep into lunar rock could give us an opportunity to see if protons can decay into something else – a finding that could help us unify conflicting physics theories

By Alex Wilkins

7 June 2024

Detailed close up view of the moon — Going below the surface of the moon could help us probe particle physics
Milan Rademakers/Shutterstock

Drilling a 5-kilometre-deep hole in the moon could finally provide evidence that protons can fall apart, claim a group of physicists. If this previously unseen behaviour is spotted, it would help efforts to unify incompatible physics theories.

Read more

Supernova neutrinos could break physics – if we can make sense of them

The standard model of particle physics, which is our best working picture of how the forces and particles that make up our universe interact, says that protons are stable, living forever. This model…

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up

Unlock this article

or

Existing subscribers

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

An illustration of a pentaquark

Physics

Exotic pentaquark particle found at CERN's Large Hadron Collider

News

Space

India's Chandrayaan-3 launches to explore moon's water-rich south pole

News

Small dome in the Compton-Belkovich region (61.33 ?N, 99.68 ?E). Evidence indicates a volcanic origin for this and other intriguing features in the region. Incidence angle is 64?, Sun is from the SSW, image is ~510 m across. NAC image number M139238146L [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Space

There’s a huge radioactive slab of volcanic granite buried on the moon

News

Quantum superposition or quantum entanglement concept illustration. Superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured. Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently.

Physics

Rethinking reality: Is the entire universe a single quantum object?

Features

1

We are finally getting to grips with how plate tectonics started

2

After another dire year for the environment, here's to better times

3

Experiment with 37 dimensions shows how strange quantum physics can be

4

Why it’s so hard to tell when Homo sapiens became a distinct species

5

The wild physics that could actually be used to build a time machine