Indian neutrino lab to have world’s biggest magnet
October 23rd, 2010 - 12:00 pm ICT by ANILondon, Oct 23 (ANI): India is set to start work on a 250-million-dollar underground laboratory, called the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO), which will be built in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the state of Tamil Nadu.
INO will be made of 50,000 tonnes of magnetised iron, dwarfing the 12,500-tonne magnet in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
“It’ll be the most massive magnet [ever built],” New Scientist quoted team member M. V. N. Murthy of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as saying.
The iron sheets will interact with the neutrinos and spew out charged particles, whose paths will be bent by the iron’s magnetic field. About 30,000 detectors sandwiched between the sheets of iron will track these charged particles, providing information about the incident neutrinos.
INO will initially study atmospheric neutrinos, which are produced when cosmic rays smash into the upper atmosphere. It will be sensitive to both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, which interact with matter in different ways.
Neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts oscillate between three types: electron, tau and muon. INO should help physicists understand which of the three types is the lightest and which is the heaviest. (ANI)
- Presence of 'Ghostly particle' to explain excess of matter in universe - Jun 23, 2010
- World's most sensitive neutrino experiment may reveal why we exist - Feb 26, 2010
- Neutrinos may reveal why there's more matter than anti-matter in Universe - Nov 28, 2009
- T2K Japan experiment begins search for mysterious neutrinos - Nov 25, 2009
- Neutrino project to get clearances despite protests - Jul 30, 2010
- Construction of India's neutrino-detection lab opposed by environmentalists - Sep 23, 2009
- Elusive neutrinos being measured more precisely - Oct 11, 2011
- Subatomic particle that could help unravel geological mysteries discovered - Jun 22, 2010
- Where does 44 trillion watts of Earth's heat come from? - Jul 18, 2011
- Indian scientists dismiss reports on 'god particle' - May 01, 2011
- Nobel laureates decry delay in India's mega science project (With Images) - Sep 25, 2009
- Radioactive decay keeps earth heated up - Aug 03, 2011
- Scientists discover what could be heaviest stable antinucleus - Apr 25, 2011
- US shuttle Endeavor lifts off for final voyage - May 16, 2011
- LHC could prove 'God Particle' theory within 2 yrs: Experts - Feb 22, 2011
Tags: antimatter counterparts, atmospheric neutrinos, bodi, cern, compact muon solenoid, cosmic rays, geneva switzerland, magnet, magnetic field, mathematical sciences, muon, murthy, neutrino lab, neutrino observatory, new scientist, physicists, solenoid, spew out, underground laboratory, upper atmosphere