China working on world's largest deep sea telescope to explore cosmic rays origin

Chinese sectists have started building a massive neutrino telescope in the South China Sea, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Wednesday (Oct 18), providing some other details. The telescope is said to be the world's largest "ghost particle" detector, which will be 3,500 metres beneath the surface of the ocean.

The scientists hope that the telescope will help them to the origin of cosmic rays, which will solve the century-old puzzle of the exploration of the extreme universe.

The Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope (Trident), which is named Hailing (Ocean Bell) in Chinese, will be the largest and most advanced in the world when completed in 2030, the project team said.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The report stated that the Trident array will be anchored to the seabed 3.5km below the Western Pacific Ocean. The instrument will scan the surrounding seawater for the flashes of light generated when cosmic neutrinos collide with water molecules.

Neutrinos are the most abundant particles that have mass in the universe. It is said that every time atomic nuclei come together or break apart, they produce neutrinos.

As quoted, Xu Donglian of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the project's chief scientist and spokeswoman, said: "Using Earth as a shield, Trident will detect neutrinos penetrating from the opposite side of the planet."

"As Trident is near the equator, it can receive neutrinos coming from all directions with the rotation of the Earth, enabling all-sky observation without any blind spot," Xu further added while speaking at a news conference on Tuesday.

SCMP report mentioned that about 100 billion ghost particles, called neutrinos, pass through each square centimetre of your body every second.

But still, their nonexistent electrical charge and negligible mass mean they barely interact with other types of matter.

During the press conference, project chair Jing Yipeng said that the telescope will also help to test space-time symmetries. According to him, it will also search for quantum gravity and indirectly search for dark matter.

Xu and her colleagues from some of China’s top universities said in a paper published on Monday by the international journal Nature Astronomy that Trident is taking shape about 540km south of Hong Kong.

Researchers have written in the journal that "with its advanced photon-detection technology and large dimensions, TRIDENT expects to observe the IceCube steady source candidate NGC 1068 with 5σ significance within 1 year of operation."

"This level of sensitivity will open a new arena for diagnosing the origin of cosmic rays and probing fundamental physics over astronomical baselines," it added.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.