Dark-matter-detector-nearing-activation-in-SD-mine
Source: Seattle pi
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Scientists hoping to detect dark matter deep in a former South Dakota gold mine have taken the last major step before flipping the switch on their more than $300 million experiment and say they may be ready to begin collecting data as early as February.
What's regarded as the world's most sensitive dark matter detector was lowered earlier this month into a 70,000-gallon water tank nearly a mile beneath the earth's surface, shrouding it in enough insulation to hopefully isolate dark matter from the cosmic radiation that makes it impossible to detect above ground.
And if all goes as planned, the data that begins flowing could answer age-old questions about the universe and its origins, scientists said Monday.
"We might well uncover something fantastic," said Harry Nelson, a professor of physics at University of California, Santa Barbara and a principal investigator on the Large Underground Xenon experiment. "One thing about our field is that it's kind of brutal in that we know it's expensive and we work hard to only do experiments that are really important."
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Dark-matter-detector-nearing-activation-in-SD-mine-4054085.php
The quest for Knowledge continues right here in SD!!
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If you want to find matter that's dark I guess it makes sense to go where the dark is.
...but as I understand it, even the existence of "dark matter" is theoretical.
Modern Science Inc is desperately trying to find something that explains why, under close examination, all matter appears to be an illusion. "dark matter" is that god-like essence that, despite a makeup of atoms and molecules an object still appears solid.
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Hopefully it'll find something.
