Science

Second Largest Man-Made Structure to Look Through Earth at Astrophysical Neutrinos

Most people had never heard of a neutrino until Italian researchers earlier this year, claimed they had observed the elementary sub-atomic particle as traveling faster than the speed of light — a discovery that has yet to be verified under peer review. In this case, the neutrinos were created in a beam of protons by a particle accelerator, but neutrinos are created in other ways including violent, deep space events that smash atomic particles and could send astrophysical neutrinos toward Earth.

These are the neutrinos that European scientists hope to see. But finding them is exceedingly difficult. So, the researchers are setting out to build the second largest man-made structure under the Mediterranean Sea to watch for them.

European Researcher to Build Second Largest Man Made Structure to Study Neutrinos

KM3NeT concept design. (Image: KM3NeT Consortium via Popular Science)

Popular Science has more on what the researchers hope to gain from technology that would look through the earth — yes, through the Earth — and would be second only to the Great Wall of China in size:

Nestled beneath 3,200 feet of Mediterranean seawater, a neutrino detector called KM3NeT will stare at the seafloor in an effort to see neutrinos making their way through the Earth. The detector, spanning three cubic kilometers, will also serve as a new oceanography observatory in one of the world’s busiest bodies of water, helping biologists listen to whales and study bioluminescent organisms. It will be the largest structure ever made by humans after the Great Wall of China, said physicist Giorgio Riccobene, a staff researcher at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics who is working on the project. “The problem will be that nobody will see that,” he said with a laugh.

The goal is to find astrophysical neutrinos originating in cosmic cataclysms, Riccobene said. They could help explain the origin of cosmic rays, the proton flux that rains down on the Earth from unknown sources. To get past the magnetic fields provided by our galaxy, sun, and Earth itself, these cosmic rays must be incredibly powerful, but cosmic rays don’t point back to their sources the way light would. Neutrinos can help reconstruct their paths.

“At these energies,” Riccobene said, “the only high energy particles that can come from very distant sources are neutrinos. So by looking at them, we can probe the far and violent universe.”

Popular Science reports that the first phase of the $27.7 million project is being conducted in collaboration of 40 research institutions from 10 European countries. The first stage of KM3NeT will be composed of 30 towers and 37,200 photomultiplier modules, which are reported to “catch the telltale flashes” of a neutrino.

Since neutrinos are, like their name, little and neutral in charge, they can pass through almost anything. The researchers are setting up shop in the ocean to use it as an “underwater telescope” to see the interaction of neutrinos with other charged particles clearly. And, by looking through Earth, the scientists hope to rule out that they may be seeing atmospheric neutrinos instead of the astrophysical neutrinos, which are the ones they are seeking.

What researchers will be looking for, Popular Science reports, are blue flashes that occur when neutrinos may interact with charged particles:

Think of it like a game of billiards, explains Riccobene.

“The neutrino is the shot that breaks the ‘castle,’ the group of billiard balls that form the nucleus of an atom. When it breaks this castle, there is a possibility that an outgoing particle can be produced,” he said. If it is a muon — a charged subatomic bit, a much larger cousin to the electron — this is good news. The muon formation radiates a cone of blue light, known as Cherenkov radiation. If physicists are lucky, that flash will happen in a clear and deep medium, like Antarctic ice or the depths of the Mediterranean.

The photomultiplier tubes mentioned earlier will be able to detect such flashes, but the researchers have improved upon previous technology of the tubes to increase “resolution and tracking.” As for the towers on which the the photomultiplier tubes will be placed on, Popular Science states they  will be about 2,624 feet tall.

Popular Science reports that some don‘t agree with the project’s bigger-is-better stance to finding neutrinos:

“There’s a segment of the physics community who make the argument, these are particles with a higher energy you could ever hope to produce in an accelerator, which is true. And they may tell us something different about the cosmos, that’s true. But it’s all ‘could be.’ And I haven’t seen anything from any of these experiments that tells us anything that’s new,” said [Peter Fisher, a particle physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.] “The way I’d look at it is, if you saw something, if there was some interesting new particle produced at the Large Hadron Collider, and you knew something about its properties, then you would know what to look for and what kind of detector to build. But just building bigger and bigger hasn’t worked so far.”

Popular Science states that the photomultiplier tubes are already being built and tested, and construction on the KM3NeT as a whole is expected to begin sometime next year.

Comments (16)

  • pmjr-jones
    Posted on December 21, 2011 at 4:59pm

    half split a gravity molecule

    Report Post »  
    • pmjr-jones
      Posted on December 21, 2011 at 5:03pm

      and stop it in mid motion?

      Report Post »  
    • pmjr-jones
      Posted on December 21, 2011 at 9:34pm

      i looked at the picture and thought they were making artificial gravity

      Report Post »  
    • pmjr-jones
      Posted on December 21, 2011 at 9:46pm

      I didn’t read the article i now think you would have to have every molecule from the planet you are from for artificial gravity to work.

      Report Post »  
  • 123456beatriz
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:27am

    Don’t worry is God=E=mc2

    Report Post »  
  • elfman
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 6:16am

    nelbert
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:37pm
    “Newsflash. Research like this leads to new technologies. New technologies lead to jobs.
    History lesson time: In the late 1800s, a fellow by the name of JJ. Thomson made an arcane discovery that, at the time, was only interesting to a few eggheads. His favorite toast was “To the electron — may it never be of any use to anybody.” In the following century, knowledge of the electron was the basis of atomic science and, of course, electronics. I’m sure glad they bothered to “splurge” on the research.”

    nelbert, who’s money did JJ. Thomson “splurge”, and how much was taken by force?

    Report Post » elfman  
    • nelbert
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 8:05am

      I’m not sure where Thompson got his research funds, but he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge U. I would suspect, then as now, there was a mixture of private and public funding.
      Whatever it cost, it was well worth it. His discovery of the electron ranks pretty high up there on the list of significant finds that changed the world. I wouldn’t be able to type this message without that contribution to science.
      Governmental funding of high end research is hardly a new concept. I’m glad such monies were made available for the Manhattan Project, the Interstate road system, the space race, and the development of the Internet – to name a few. As loathsome as taxes are, I acknowledge it takes money to run a country and to compete against other countries. The current administration’s de-emphasis on space exploration, on high-end physics research, and on resource development are things I find very frightening. I don’t think it wise to “pal up” with Russia on space flights. I don’t like letting other nations – some not so friendly ones – get the lead in technology.
      We all know stories about government spending on wacky projects, but it is also true that sometimes what sounds wacky at first, may have merit. Democrats tried to lampoon Reagan with the $600 toilet seat for the P-3C Orion. Of course, it was later shown that the “seat” was a much more elaborate device – well worth the 600 clams.

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • Bill in Texas
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:07am

      Where’s Itally getting the money for this? They’re broke and heading the way of Greece.

      Report Post »  
    • nelbert
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 8:57pm

      To Bill In Texas:
      It isn’t Italy (by itself) that’s paying for this. It’s funded by the EU FP6 and FP7 framework – in other words, the EU.
      FP6 and 7 refer to Framework Programs 6 and 7. If I glean things correctly, FP6 had a total research budget of about €18 billion for 2002-2006 (and this was not the only research project funded). FP7 has a total budget of about €50 billion for 2007-2013.

      Report Post » nelbert  
  • Pro-Palin
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 7:37pm

    How many mouths could be filled in europe by not building this at present. The EU is Imploding and the Italians are worried about the neutrino’s instead of the bambinos.

    Report Post » Pro-Palin  
    • palerider54
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 9:28pm

      Amen brother, they will spend billions in an effort to explain away an Almighty God.

      Report Post »  
    • nelbert
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:37pm

      Newsflash. Research like this leads to new technologies. New technologies lead to jobs.
      History lesson time: In the late 1800s, a fellow by the name of JJ. Thomson made an arcane discovery that, at the time, was only interesting to a few eggheads. His favorite toast was “To the electron — may it never be of any use to anybody.” In the following century, knowledge of the electron was the basis of atomic science and, of course, electronics. I’m sure glad they bothered to “splurge” on the research.
      But wait. There’s more.
      Mid 1800s a fellow named Heinrich Hertz does a little experiment about electromagnetism. One of his students asks what use it might be and he responds “It’s of no use whatsoever. This is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right — we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there.” Word of Hertz’s experiment made a bit stronger impact on another fellow named Marconi who used the idea to make radio.
      We will always have the poor and hungry. One way to help is to do research that may very well open doors to new technologies and new opportunities.
      It’s amazing how many times one has to repeat this.

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • smackdown33
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 11:47pm

      Palerider, they are finding God.

      Report Post »  
    • nelbert
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 1:54am

      To Palerider54: The goal isn’t to explain away God; it’s to explain and understand the universe.
      Knowing the chemistry behind photosynthesis does not make a flower any less beautiful to me, and trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe with science says nothing about the Divine.

      Some of the bigger names in science in the early part of the last century were Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac and Wolfgang Pauli. Heisenberg recounted a friendly conversation that occurred at the 1927 Solvay Conference about religion. Dirac, an ardent atheist, said: “I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest – and as scientists honesty is our precise duty – we cannot help but admit that any religion is a pack of false statements, deprived of any real foundation. The very idea of God is a product of human imagination. I do not recognize any religious myth, at least because they contradict one another.” Heisenberg was tolerant. Wolfgang Pauli, a strong Catholic, initially kept silent, but when prodded for his opinion, jokingly he said: “Well, I‘d say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is ’God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet’”. Everybody burst into laughter, including Dirac.

      In short, don’t try to pigeonhole all scientists. Their mission isn’t to kill God, and you’ll find a great many believers in their ranks.

      Report Post » nelbert  
    • Brents Torts
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:09pm

      Well said Nelbert.

      Report Post » Brents Torts  

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