Article Posted on : - Jul 02, 2010

Supernova neutrinos. A file photo.

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia is planning to complete the construction work of the world's largest neutrino telescope in 2011, in Antarctica.

According to a news report by RIA Novosti, the $271 million worth telescope will be looking for neutrinos from the most violent astrophysical sources, such as star explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars.

The project's purpose is not to study the stars, but the Earth's depths.

"The telescope's size exceeds the overall height of the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Shanghai World Financial Centre," Roscosmos was quoted as saying in the news report.

Neutrinos are similar to the more familiar electron, but do not carry electric charge. A neutrino is an elementary particle that usually travels close to the speed of light, is electrically neutral, and is able to pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed.

Neutrinos have a very small, but nonzero mass and are extremely difficult to detect.

The telescope will be equipped with some 5,000 Digital Optical Modules buried under the ice at depths of 1.4-2.5 km. The modules will transmit experimental data for 25 years.