The Department of Energy’s Fermilab is building a gargantuan detector to examine uncharged subatomic neutrinos that can blast through the earth unimpeded. The 14,000-ton detector in Minnesota will capture neutrinos shot from a cannon over 500 miles away
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Given how rarely neutrinos interact with other elementary particles, they’re notoriously difficult to study and consequently, our understanding of these electrically neutral subatomic entities remains rather sketchy. However, the Department of Energy’s famed Fermilab in Batavia, IL aims to unlock these particles’ secrets by blasting them through hundreds of miles of the Earth’s crusts.
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Just because Fermilab shut off its famous Tevartron back in 2011 doesn’t mean the entire facility closed down with it. In fact, the Chicago-area physics lab is embarking on an auspicious plan to develop some of the world’s most powerful proton beam technology by the end of the decade. But first, researchers have to install a 50-foot diameter electromagnet shipped in from 3,000 miles away and unlock the secret lives of elusive subatomic particles. No sweat, right?
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All apologies accepted if you mistook that image above as cover art for Daft Punk’s new album — it’s not (although the duo should consider it.). That Tron-ish, equalizer-like graphic is actually a 3D representation of particle activity left behind by cosmic rays interacting within NOvA, the Department of Energy’s under construction neutrino detector. It’s the first such visual record made possible by the University of Minnesota-operated facility that, when completed, will extend for more than 200 feet underground in an area near the Canadian border and endure regular bombardment by a controlled stream of neutrinos. Beyond its obvious visual appeal, data like this should give physicists at the DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory insight into the nature of neutrinos (some of which are said to have been issued from the Big Bang) and, by extension, the origins of our ever-expanding universe. For now, though, the project’s still in the baby steps phase — only 12 feet of the detector (the currently operational portion) has been successfully built out — so the reality-shattering, scientific epiphanies will have to wait. Until then, it’s all still life as we safely know it.
The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) puts it into perspective right away: “Eight billion years ago, rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth.” It’s important to hold that fact in mind, as we marvel at the first images from deep in the belly of our universe to arrive from the Chile-based Dark Energy Camera (DECam). As that name might suggest, peering at remote galaxies for purely visual gratification isn’t the camera’s primary purpose. The result of eight years of planning and hard work, involving engineers and scientists from three continents, the DECam is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Sitting atop a 7,200-foot mountain, the camera is part of the Dark Energy Survey, which intends to gather information on over 300 million galaxies. The goal is to better understand dark energy — a concept that represents our best explanation for why the universe’s rate of expansion is speeding up, rather than slowing due to gravity. Gaze past the break for the background on the project.
Continue reading DECam: Gazing deep into the final frontier in search of dark energy
DECam: Gazing deep into the final frontier in search of dark energy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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