The India Based Neutrino Observatory.

TNPSC Current Affairs - March 2018 by TNPSC Guru 

• Union environment ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) has given environmental Clearance to set up  The India Based Neutrino Observatory in Theni district of Tamil Nadu.
• It will study the atmospheric neutrinos produced by cosmic rays in Atmosphere. 

What is Neutrino? 

• Neutrinos are elementary particle which is like electron but has no electrical charge.
• The mass of Neutrino is smaller than the known elementary particle which might even be zero.
• Neutrons are most abundant particle found in universe, because of weak interaction with matter it is difficult to detect.
• Initially it is believed that Neutrinos has no mass but recent study reveals that it has small mass.
• Neutrinos doesn’t have electric charge but it carries different kind of charge called Flavor.
• There are 3 flavor’s of Neutrinos currently Electron , Muaon and Tau. 

Neutrino Oscillation,

• Scientist has revealed that neutrino changes from one type to another when they travel.
• The Electron Neutrino from sun on its flight to earth which converts into Muaon or Tau Neutrino is called Neutrino Oscillation.
• This discovery reveals that Neutrino has small Mass.

Why inside Mountain.

• INO is going to construct the detector inside the mountain to detect the Neutrinos.
• Neutrino has small mass which can easily penetrate anything because of its weakly interactive nature.
• Neutrinos found abundantly in atmosphere but still it is very difficult to detect due to other particles found in atmosphere which has Mass.
• So to overcome this difficulty detector is constructing inside the mountain to detect Neutrino easily.

About Lab.

• The lab will be constructed under the 1300 m Deep inside Mountain.
• The detector of Neutrino is called Calorimeter, which consisits of Resistive Plate chamber and 50 k tonnes of Magnetised iron plates arranged in stack layer spaces.

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