tons. LENA LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy) is a liquid scintillation detector with a mass about 50 kton. Its cylindrical shaped tank with about 100 meters height and 30 meters diameter. The actual scintillation volume is surrounded by nylon barrier and buffer volume. Additionally the buffer volume is surrounded by a pure water volume. The detection mechanism of LENA will be the photomultiplier tubes, which are designed to cover partly the walls between buffer volume and water volume. The scintillation light produced in scintillation volume will be detected with those photomultiplier tubes. LENA's aim is to study low energy neutrinos originated by supernova explosions, Sun and Earth's interior. Scientific goals The goals of the project were to: study the unification of all forces by observing proton decay (a very rare phenomenon expected to occur according to some Grand Unified Theory (GUT) models but never observed), study the galactic supernovae through neutrino-observations, study terrestrial and solar neutrinos (neutrinos are formed in nuclear processes), study the excess of matter over antimatter in the universe through observing neutrino oscillations in collaboration with CERN (that provides the neutrino-beams for the experiment; neutrinos are made in the CERN and the sent as underground beam for hundreds of kilometers through the Earth to the detectors). Sites The candidate sites for the observatory were: Callio at Pyhäsalmi Mine (Finland) Fréjus Road Tunnel (France) Boulby Mine (United Kingdom) Umbria (this site requires a new cavern to be excavated, as in contrast to the other sites, this site is not an old mine) (Italy) SUNLAB (Sieroszowice UNderground LABoratory) in Polkowice-Sieroszowice mine (Poland) Unirea mine in Slănic (Romania) Canfranc Underground Laboratory (Spain) From these candidates, the observatory location is chosen (See the project website for more information about the sites). References External links Neutrino experiments International science experiments