The World's Biggest Magnet being built in India

India Atomic Energy Commission is currently developing the world's largest magnet, which weighs around 50,000 tons. Magnet is four times the size of the one used on the European Nuclear Agency's (CERN) Compact Muon Solenoid detector in Geneva, Switzerland.

Head of the Nuclear-Physics Division at India Atomic Energy Commission, Vivek Datar, said the biggest magnet designed at the country’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay was made from the iron base. By comparison, the solenoid magnet used in CERN's feted Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is just 12,500 tonnes.

India will install this giant magnet on the Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) installation, that built 4,300 feet (1,310 meters) below the cave in a mountain range located in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in southern Tamil Nadu state. As the name suggests, the primary aim of the project is to find out more about the behaviour of the subatomic particles known as atmospheric neutrinos.

The Indian Neutrino Observatory is set to be built within this mountain in the Body West Hills Reserved Forest. (Picture from: http://www.popsci.com/)

The idea is that the neutrinos will interact with the 50,000 tonnes of magnetised iron - layered in 6cm thick plates – resulting in charged particles that will be affected by the magnetic field. Tens of thousands of detectors will be installed in the observatory to monitor the behaviour of these particles.

Neutrino particle research projects are nothing new – Super Kamiokande in Japan has been in operation for nearly 30 years, for example – but it is hoped the sheer scale of this one could lead to some interesting findings.

The Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva. (Picture from: http://phys.org/)

Naba Mondal, spokeswoman of the Observatory project at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, said Neutrino Observatory will be the primary facility for research in the basic sciences. "This facility will help scientists and students in the field of particle physics, astrophysics and space science," she said.

The observatory will begin construction in next 6-8 months and be completed in 2018. About 100 scientists and 26 research centers institutions and university taking part in the Indian government's ambitious project. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | TIMES OF INDIA |  THE REGISTER | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 4168]

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