Scientists are ecstatic over the hugely popular results of the NOvA neutrino experiment yesterday, which represented the first time scientists were able to observe neutrino oscillations.

Fermilab presented its analysis of the first results of this experiment, which involved physicists from William & Mary as well as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, according to a William & Mary News report.

NOvA stands for NuMI Off-Axis Electron Neutrino Appearance, and it is a research project at Fermilab, which focuses on high-energy particle physics, according to a Tech Times report.

Neutrinos essentially act with ordinary matter, but only weakly, making it very difficult for scientists to observe. It has three types: tau neutrinos, electron neutrinos, and muon neutrinos, which are all subatomic particles that were produced by sources including the sun, the Big Bang, and nuclear reactors.

Since these neutrinos oscillate, they can shift between the three types, and the NOvA project was created to help scientists observe the oscillation from a muon to and electron neutrino.

The massive particle detector used in the project can detect neutrinos from a whopping distance of 500 miles.

Fermilab measured the composition of the neutrino beam while it passed through a detector underground. A huge amount of neutrinos — trillions of them — were sent through the accelerator about once per second.

When a neutrino interacts with an atom in the far detector, a signature trail of particles and light is released, which indicates the type of neutrino it is. The beam from Fermilab is mostly muon neutrinos. Scientists thought they would see 201 muon neutrinos in the far detector if there were no oscillations, but they found 33 instead, indicating that many had changed.