dc.description | Setbacks to the Neutrino Observatory show the need to garner public support for scientific research
India’s wait to join the elite club of countries undertaking neutrino research suffered a procedural delay in March this year when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) suspended the environmental clearance (EC) granted to the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), and ordered it to file a fresh application for clearance.
The proposed INO project primarily aims to study atmospheric neutrinos in a 1,300-m deep cavern in the Bodi West Hills in Theni district, Tamil Nadu. If completed, the INO would house the largest magnet in the world, four times more massive than the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN’s Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector’s magnet. Neutrinos are tiny particles, almost massless, that travel at near light speeds. Born from violent astrophysical events such as exploding stars and gamma ray bursts, they are abundant in the universe, and can move as easily through matter as we move through air. They are notoriously difficult to track down. If you hold your hand towards the sunlight for one second, about a billion neutrinos from the sun will pass through it; this is because they are the by-products of nuclear fusion in the sun. These little wisps hold the blueprint of nature, which the INO project aims to use to understand some of the unsolved mysteries of the universe. | en_US |