China is building an enormous telescope for ghost particle in the western Pacific Ocean. Its job will be to detect “ghost particles”, also known as neutrinos. The telescope will be the largest of its kind, scientists say in an article published in Nature earlier this month.
China is undertaking a massive scientific endeavor by constructing the world’s largest “ghost particle” detector beneath the Western Pacific Ocean’s surface, named the Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope(TRIDENT) or “Ocean Bell” in Chinese.
According to a report in Space.com this groundbreaking project, set for completion in 2030, aims to capture elusive neutrinos as they briefly become detectable in the deep ocean depths, providing valuable insights into their cosmic origins.
TRIDENT, anchored 11,500 feet(3,500 meters) below the ocean’s surface, employs the Earth itself as a shield to detect neutrinos penetrating from the surface of the planet.
What is a Ghost particle?
To understand what a ghost particle or neutrino is, we need to understand the importance of atoms. Atoms make up our universe, Anything that has mass – you, me the book on the shelf next to you, and the cup of coffee you’re drinking from – is made up of atoms.
For a long time, scientists thought atoms were the smallest particles in existence- Before discovering that they are themselves comprise of even tinier “subatomic” particles: protons(which have a positive charge), Neutrinos are a type of electron but, like neutrons, they do not have any charge.
They are among the most abundant particles in our universe – with trillions of neutrinos passing through you at any given second – and also among the tiniest.
Neutrinos were long believe to be massless until scientists found evidence that they have a tiny mass.
Neutrinos’ weak charge and almost nonexistent mass have made them difficult for scientists to observe. They can only be “seen” when they interact with other particles. The rarity of interactions with other particles makes them almost impossible to track.
That’s why they’re called ghost particles – the vast majority skirt around undetect.
How do Scientists detect it?
Ghost particles rarely interact with other particles. But rarely doesn’t mean “never”. Sometimes they interact with water molecules, which is why China is building its ghost molecule telescope underwater.
Scientists have observed ghost particles in fleeting instances when the particles create byproducts after traveling through water or ice.
These “muons” create flashes of light that can be detect by sophisticated underwater telescopes and offer one of the few ways to study the energy and source of neutrinos.
Right now, the largest neutrino-detecting telescope is the University of Madison-Wisconson’s “IceCube” telescope. Situated deep in the Antarctic, the telescope’s sensors span around 1 cubic kilometer.
China says its new telescope, called “TRIDENT”, will span 7.5 cubic kilometers in the South China Sea.
Scientists say that its size will allow it to detect more neutrinos and make it “10,000 times more sensitive” than existing underwater telescopes.
Construction has already begun and is slate to finish within the decade, scientists say.
Why Does it Matter?
Scientists don’t know why the massively abundant neutrinos act the way they do. They defy established rules of physics. And it’s not clear where the particles come from. Scientists think they might have played a role in the early universe, right after the big bang. But this is just a hypothesis, nothing they’ve been capable of proving yet.
It is thought that a sound understanding of neutrinos will help solve several scientific mysteries – like the origin of mysterious cosmic rays, which are known to contain neutrinos. Research believes that understanding the source of neutrinos will enable them to explain the origin of cosmic rays – something scientists have been trying to do for centuries.
There’s evidence that neutrinos are essential for understanding the origins of our universe. The construction of Trident is set to bring us one step closer to that knowledge.