{"id":14636,"date":"2021-04-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/02-04-2021\/baikal-gvd\/"},"modified":"2021-04-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T00:00:00","slug":"baikal-gvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-04-2021\/baikal-gvd","title":{"rendered":"Baikal-GVD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, Russian scientists have deployed <strong>Baikal-Gigaton Volume Detector<\/strong> (GVD) in the waters of <strong>Lake Baikal<\/strong>, <strong>Russia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Baikal-Gigaton Volume Detector<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Its construction started in <strong>2016<\/strong> and it is <strong>one of the three largest neutrino detectors<\/strong> in the world along with the <strong>IceCube<\/strong> at the <strong>South Pole <\/strong>and <strong>ANTARES<\/strong> in the <strong>Mediterranean Sea<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It will <strong>study the elusive fundamental particles<\/strong> called <strong>neutrinos <\/strong>and possibly determine their sources.<\/li>\n<li>It will help scientists in <strong>understanding the origins of the universe<\/strong> since <strong>some neutrinos were formed during the Big Bang<\/strong> and others <strong>continue to be formed as a result of supernova explosions<\/strong> or because of <strong>nuclear reactions <\/strong>in the Sun.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clear freshwater<\/strong> and <strong>thick and protective ice<\/strong> cover make Lake Baikal an <strong>ideal place to search<\/strong> for neutrinos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Fundamental Particles<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, the understanding is that the universe is made of some <strong>fundamental particles which are indivisible<\/strong> or <strong>cannot be broken down further into smaller particles<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Broadly, <strong>particles of matter<\/strong> can be classified into <strong>quarks <\/strong>and <strong>leptons<\/strong>, which make up \u201c<strong>normal matter<\/strong>\u201d that accounts for only five per cent of the universe.<\/li>\n<li>There is <strong>not much information about the remaining 95 per cent <\/strong>of the universe, of which <strong>27 per cent<\/strong> is <strong>dark matter<\/strong> and scientists have <strong>no idea about the remaining 68 per cent <\/strong>yet.<\/li>\n<li>Exploration in the field of physics so far has led to the <strong>discovery of over 12 such quarks and leptons<\/strong>, and three (<strong>protons, neutrons and electrons<\/strong>) out of those <strong>have made everything<\/strong> in the world.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Protons <\/strong>(carry a positive charge) and <strong>neutrons <\/strong>(no charge) are types of <strong>quarks<\/strong>, whereas <strong>electrons <\/strong>(carry a negative charge) are types of <strong>leptons<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These three particles <strong>make Atoms<\/strong>, also referred to as the <strong>building block of life<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In different combinations, these particles can make <strong>different kinds of atoms<\/strong>, which in turn <strong>make up molecules <\/strong>that form everything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Studying <\/strong>fundamental particles gives scientists a window into <strong>understanding the universe in a better way<\/strong>, that is why scientists want to study neutrinos (not the same as neutrons), which are <strong>also a type of fundamental particles<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Neutrinos<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They are the <strong>smallest particles currently known<\/strong> and about a thousand trillion of them pass through a human body every second.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nearly massless subatomic particles<\/strong>, they are the<strong> second most abundant<\/strong> particles <strong>after photons<\/strong> (particles of light).<\/li>\n<li>However, they are <strong>not easy to catch<\/strong> because they<strong> do not carry a charge <\/strong>and subsequently <strong>do not interact with matter<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They might have <strong>unique properties<\/strong> that would help <strong>explain why the universe is made of matter <\/strong>instead of antimatter.\n<ul>\n<li>The subatomic particles that make up antimatter have <strong>properties that are opposite to normal matter<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is known that <strong>antimatter exists<\/strong> but the<strong> reason for its existence<\/strong> or the <strong>difference<\/strong> of its subatomic particles is <strong>not known<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>They can be <strong>detected in water or ice<\/strong> as they leave a <strong>flash of light <\/strong>or a <strong>line of bubbles<\/strong> when they interact.<\/li>\n<li>To <strong>capture these signs<\/strong>, large detectors and GVD have been designed to detect high-energy <strong>neutrinos <\/strong>that may have<strong> come from the Earth\u2019s core<\/strong>, or could have been <strong>produced during nuclear reactions<\/strong> in the Sun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color:#fff2cc; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Lake Baikal<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is located in the <strong>south-east Siberian region of Russia.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The 3.15-million-ha lake is the <strong>oldest <\/strong>(25 million years) and <strong>deepest <\/strong>(1,700 m) lake in the world.<\/li>\n<li>It contains<strong> 20% of the world&#8217;s total unfrozen freshwater reserve<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Known as the &#8216;<strong>Galapagos of Russia<\/strong>&#8216;, its age and isolation have produced one of the world&#8217;s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas.<\/li>\n<li>It is home to approximately 1,700 to 1,800 endemic plant and animal species<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>1996<\/strong>, it was declared a <strong>UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/340187211293337660_image.png\" style=\"height:316px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:294px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(Image Courtesy: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Lake-Baikal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Britannica<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-what-is-a-telescope-doing-inside-the-worlds-deepest-lake-7254805\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, Russian scientists have deployed Baikal-Gigaton Volume Detector (GVD) in the waters of Lake Baikal, Russia. Baikal-Gigaton Volume Detector Its construction started in 2016 and it is one of the three largest neutrino detectors in the world along with the IceCube at the South Pole and ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea. It will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,33],"class_list":["post-14636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/6869963Current-Affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}