Russian scientists on Saturday launched one of the largest underwater space telescopes in the world to look deeply into the Universe from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal.
The deep submarine telescope, which has been under construction since 2015, is designed to observe neutrinos, the smallest particles currently known.
Said Baikal-GVD, the telescope was submerged at a depth of 750-1,300 meters, about four kilometers from the shore of the lake.
Baikal-GVD going down into the water. (Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik Kirill Shipitsin / Sputnik / AFP)
Neutrinos are very difficult to detect and water is an effective means of doing so.
The floating observatory consists of spherical glass ropes and attached stainless steel modules.
On Saturday, the scientists observed that the modules were carefully lowered into the icy 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 as he stood on the frozen surface of the lake.
In several years, the telescope will be expanded to a cubic kilometer, Naumov said.
(Bair Shaibonov / Russian Institute for Nuclear Research / AFP)
The Baikal telescope will rival Ice Cube, a giant neutrino observatory buried under Antarctic ice at a U.S. research station at the South Pole, he added.
Russian scientists say the telescope is the largest neutrino detector in the northern hemisphere and that Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, is ideal for housing the floating observatory.
“Of course, Lake Baikal is the only lake where a neutrino telescope can be deployed because of its depth,” Bair Shoibonov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP.
“Fresh water is also important, so is the clarity of the water. And the fact that there is ice cover for two and two months is also very important.”
The telescope is the result of a collaboration between scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.
© France-Presse Agency