Frequently asked questions
What TAMBO is, why it sits in a canyon, and who is building it.
- What is TAMBO?
- TAMBO — the Tau Air-shower Mountain-Based Observatory — is a next-generation neutrino telescope that uses a deep valley in the Andes as its detector. An array of particle detectors on one canyon face watches for air showers produced by tau neutrinos that interact in the opposite face.
- Why does TAMBO sit in a canyon?
- The canyon is part of the instrument. Its rock provides kilometres of natural shielding against background particles, and its geometry lets TAMBO see tau neutrinos arriving both downward from the sky and upward through the Earth — something a flat detector cannot do.
- Why tau neutrinos?
- All neutrino flavours interact in rock, but only the tau lepton produced by a tau neutrino decays quickly enough to create a detectable air shower in the valley. Electrons are absorbed by the rock and muons pass through without showering. Focusing on taus gives TAMBO an exceptionally pure cosmic-neutrino sample.
- Why Peru?
- TAMBO needs a valley that is deep, wide, and long. The Colca Valley in the Peruvian Andes — one of the deepest canyons in the world — is a strong candidate. Peru also brings a vibrant scientific community: nearly half of TAMBO's institutions are Peruvian, and the project aims to help develop a major scientific facility in the country.
- What is TAMBITO?
- TAMBITO (“little tambo”) is TAMBO's prototype and first stage, currently under design and construction. It will validate the detector technology and serve as a stepping stone toward the full 5,000-unit array, expected to be completed in 2028.
- What is “responsible siting”?
- TAMBO includes anthropologists, sociologists, historians, geographers, and philosophers alongside physicists. Before and during construction, the collaboration works with local communities to evaluate the social and environmental impact of the observatory, strengthen STEM education in local schools, and rethink how large scientific facilities and communities work together.
- How is TAMBO different from IceCube?
- IceCube transformed a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice into a neutrino telescope; TAMBO transforms a deep valley into one. TAMBO focuses on tau neutrinos at the highest energies, where nearly every detected neutrino is of cosmic origin, using well-understood, low-cost, scalable surface detectors. The two are complementary: TAMBO acts as a viewfinder that tells other telescopes where to look.
- Who funds TAMBO?
- TAMBO is supported by Grant 63651 from the John Templeton Foundation, the Harvard-UTEC fund, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and Harvard University.