- The Government of India has approved a project to build the India-based Neutrino Observatory(INO) at Pottipuram in Theni District of Tamil Nadu.
- A neutrino is a subatomic particle with no electric charge.They are considered to be the second most abundant particle in the universe after photons or light particles.
- Neutrinos were initially thought to be massless particles but recent experiments suggest that they indeed have a very small mass.
- Currently,three types of neutrinos called flavors are known:(a)Electron Neutrino (b)Muon Neutrino and (c)Tauon Neutrino.Further,Neutrinos can change from one flavor to another as they travel.This process is called neutrino oscillation.
- Neutrinos are important as they hold the key to several important and fundamental questions on the origin of the Universe and the energy production in stars.
- Further,if the properties of neutrinos can be studied better,they can also be used in astronomy to discover what the universe is made up of.
- The India-based Neutrino Observatory(INO) is a proposed science underground laboratory.Its primary goal is to study the properties and interactions of neutrinos.
- INO project is jointly supported by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science & Technology (DST) with DAE acting as the nodal agency.Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR),Mumbai is the host institute for INO project.
- The objective of INO is to study neutrinos produced from cosmic rays in Earth’s atmosphere to make precision measurements of the parameters related to neutrino oscillations.
- INO will also study mass ordering of three types of neutrino by using Iron Calorimeter(ICAL) detector.
