telescope inside the world’s deepest lake
#GS3 Science and Technology
News info:
Russian scientists launched one of the world’s biggest underwater neutrino telescopes called the Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector) in the waters of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake situated in Siberia.
Explanation:
- The construction of this telescope, which started in 2016, is motivated by the mission to study in detail the elusive fundamental particles called neutrinos and to possibly determine their sources.
- Studying this will aid scientists’ understanding of the origins of the universe since some neutrinos were formed during the Big Bang, others continue to be formed as a result of supernova explosions or because of nuclear reactions in the Sun.
The Baikal-GVD is one of the three largest neutrino detectors in the world
the other 2 being:
- the IceCube at the South Pole
- and ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea.
Need to study fundamental particles?
- Studying what humans and everything around them are made up of gives scientists a window into understanding the universe in a better way, just how it is easy to grasp what a cake is once one knows the ingredients it is made up of.
- This is one reason why scientists are so keen on studying neutrinos (not the same as neutrons), which are also a type of fundamental particle.
- Fundamental means that neutrinos, like electrons, protons and neutrons cannot be broken down further into smaller particles.
Source: Indian Express
