The prime energy producer in the sun is the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. However, there is more than one way for this fusion to take
place: for stars the size of the sun or smaller, the proton-proton (pp) chain reactions dominate (~99%), while in heavier stars, the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle is expected to play a more important role. Not only these fusion reactions would not have been possible without the emission of neutrinos, neutrinos are the only way to directly access the processes in the core of the sun.

The latest breakthrough in solar neutrino physics is the first experimental evidence of the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) fusion cycle. The discovery was possible due to the unprecedented radiopurity of the Borexino liquid-scintillator detector (Italy), employing innovative hardware and software developments. In the future, new technologies can further facilitate access to a broad physics agenda in neutrino physics. Of particular interest are the cutting-edge detection techniques and novel target materials that aim to fully utilize both scintillation and Cherenkov signals from low- and high- energy neutrino interactions. In this seminar, I will present the Borexino CNO neutrinos discovery and discuss the future of solar neutrinos employing the new technologies, as in the proposed multi-ktonne detector Theia.