India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

INO Project is aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover to conduct basic research on neutrino.

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is the nodal institution.

The observatory is to be built jointly with the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology.

The observatory will be located underground so as to provide adequate shielding to the neutrino detector from cosmic background radiation.

The operation of INO will have no release of radioactive or toxic substances. It is not a weapons laboratory and will have no strategic or defence applications.

Neutrino

The neutrino is a tiny elementary particle, but it is not part of the atom.

Neutrino has a very tiny mass and no charge. It interacts very weakly with other matter particles.

So weakly that every second trillions of neutrinos fall on us and pass through our bodies unnoticed.

Neutrinos come from the sun (solar neutrinos) and other stars, cosmic rays that come from beyond the solar system, and from the Big Bang from which our Universe originated.

They can also be produced in the lab.

The INO will study atmospheric neutrinos only. Solar neutrinos have much lower energy than the detector can detect.

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