Russian scientists on Saturday launched one of the world’s largest underwater space telescopes to enter the Universe from the precious waters of Lake Baikal.
The deepwater underwater telescope, which has been under construction since 2015, is designed to look at neutrinos, the currently least known particles.
Named Baikal-GVD, the telescope was submerged to a depth of 750-1,300 meters (2,500-4,300 feet), about four kilometers from the shore of the lake.
Baikal-GVD lowers into water. (Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik / AFP)
Neodrinos are very difficult to find and water is an effective means of doing so.
The floating observatory features rows with spherical glass and stainless steel models attached to them.
On Saturday, scientists saw the models carefully lowered into the frozen waters through a rectangular hole in the ice.
“A neutrino telescope measuring half a cubic kilometer is located just below our feet,” Dmitry Naumov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP while standing on the frozen surface of the lake.
In several years the telescope will be extended to measure one cubic kilometer, Naumov said.
(Bair Shaibonov / Russian Institute for Nuclear Research / AFP)
The Baikal telescope will compete with Ice Cube, a large neutrino observatory buried under Antarctic ice at a U.S. research station at the South Pole, he said.
Russian scientists say the telescope is the largest neutrino detector in the Northern Hemisphere and Lake Baikal – the largest freshwater lake in the world – is perfect for living in the world. floating theater.
“In fact, Lake Baikal is the only lake where you can use a neutrino telescope because of its depth,” Bair Shoibonov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP.
“Freshwater is also important, water clarity is also important. And the fact that there is ice cover for two and a half months is also very important.”
The telescope is the result of collaboration between scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.
© Agence France-Presse