Russian scientists launched one of the world’s largest underwater space telescopes on Saturday to look deep into the Universe from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal.
The deep underwater telescope, under construction since 2015, is designed to observe neutrinos, the smallest particles currently known.
The telescope, called Baikal-GVD, 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 is lowered into the water. (Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik / AFP)
Neutrinos are very difficult to detect and water is an effective medium for this.
The floating observatory consists of strings attached to spherical glass and stainless steel modules.
On Saturday, scientists watched the modules gently lower into the icy water through a rectangular hole in the ice.
“A half-cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope is right under our feet,” Dmitry Naumov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP while standing on the frozen surface of the lake.
In a few years, the telescope will expand to one cubic kilometer, Naumov said.
(Bair Shaibonov / Russian Institute for Nuclear Research / AFP)
The Baikal telescope will compete with Ice Cube, a giant neutrino observatory buried under Antarctic ice at a US research station in the South Pole, he added.
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 ideal to house the floating observatory.
“Of course, Lake Baikal is the only lake where you can deploy a neutrino telescope because of its depth,” Bair Shoibonov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP.
“Fresh water is also important, including the clarity of the water. And the fact that there is ice for two to two and a half months is also very important.”
The telescope is the result of a collaboration between scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.
© Agence France-Presse