Project Profile

The main objective of the enhancement project "KM3NeT Italy" is the creation of a submarine telescope to capture neutrinos, made up of 60 tower structures capable of revealing the luminous wake produced by rare interactions of neutrinos of astrophysical origin with sea water, with the ultimate objective of identifying sources of cosmic rays and antimatter. The telescope will integrate the infrastructure already existing on the site of Capo Passero, in Sicily.

Each tower of the telescope is endowed with 40 optic modules made up of 31 sensors (photomultipliers) inside a sphere of pressure-resistant glass. Also inside the sphere are the electronics necessary for fuelling the photomultipliers, for the conversion of signals into digital and for the transmission of data in fibre optic, as well as a series of tools (compass, clinometer, optic system for temporal calibration) necessary for acquisition of environmental data.

The first submarine tower of the large telescope was deposited on 23 March 2013 at around 3500 metres' depth and 100 km wide from the coast of Portopalo. On the structure were mounted 14 acoustic sensors, capable also of capturing communications between cetaceans and understanding whether ship traffic or noise pollution under the sea are disturbing the life of the primordial inhabitants of the sea. Since the tower was mounted, in spring, its sensors have captured the passage of two cetaceans.

The tower is connected to the ground with a fibre optic cable capable of transmitting in real time the data recorded at the bottom of the sea by the optic sensors.

The Infn (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) counter is the first in a series of towers which will be installed throughout the Mediterranean.

The KM3NeT Italy project, whose name derives from the effective volume of the telescope of around one cubic kilometre, is part of the larger European EMSO project, which envisages the creation of a monitoring network along the entire European coast and into which the submarine observatory which will be created with the project can be integrated.