| Subject: Re: Boulby "dark matter" detector |
Author:
ashley boulby
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Date Posted: 16:36:22 01/05/04 Mon
In reply to:
cebiq
's message, "Boulby "dark matter" detector" on 23:11:35 04/28/03 Mon
>Scientists are unveiling one of the world's leading
>laboratories looking for "dark matter", in a cavern
>1,100 metres underground.
>
> Situated at the Boulby potash mine in the north of
>England, the 10-year-old facility has been upgraded
>and refurbished to lead the search for a vital
>component of the cosmos.
>
>State-of-the-art detectors are being installed in the
>sub-surface observatory in the hope that its isolation
>and quietness will aid the search.
>
>Dark matter is a fundamental though mysterious
>component of the Universe.
>
>It could be in the form of sub-atomic particles that
>interact with normal matter only very weakly and are
>almost impossible to detect in a laboratory on the
>Earth's surface.
>
>
>
>Boulby is one of the strangest and most remarkable
>laboratories on Earth - or rather below it.
>
>To visit it, I had to don overalls, safety equipment
>and a helmet with a lamp. I had to sit through a
>briefing telling me the do's and don'ts, and how to
>handle an emergency.
>
> Then, wearing unfamiliar heavy safety boots, I walked
>from the locker room along a corridor to a huge metal
>door that hisses air as it is opened briefly. This is
>the start of the journey to the underworld.
>
>Boulby is one of the world's deepest working mines
>and, situated near the coast, its tunnels reach far
>out under the sea.
>
>For decades scientists have sought such mines, caves
>and caverns to put their detectors to try to trap
>sub-atomic particles from space.
>
>Perhaps the most famous one was the tank of cleaning
>fluid in an American mine about 1,500 metres deep.
>
>The tank detected neutrino particles from the core of
>the Sun. The observatory needed to be underground to
>shield it from confusing background radiation.
>
>Scientists had puzzled over why our star seemed to
>produce fewer neutrinos than expected. Many considered
>the experiment was flawed. But the experiment was
>right; the problem lay with the neutrinos themselves
>and not the Sun.
>
>The astonishing theory that these particles change
>their type en route to the Earth was confirmed in
>2001.
>
>
>
>Dark matter is believed to comprise 90% of the Milky
>Way and perhaps up to 99% of the Universe as a whole.
>Some of this matter could be in the form of cool
>stars, planets and black holes formed from collapsed
>stars.
>
> But the theory of the Big Bang puts a limit on how
>much of the Universe's missing content can be ordinary
>matter.
>
>The leading dark matter candidates are heavy
>slow-moving particles known as Wimps (Weakly
>Interacting Massive Particles) that have been drifting
>through space since the Universe began.
>
>If the Boulby scientists are lucky, they may see one
>pass by.
>
>The UK Dark Matter Collaboration is a consortium of
>astrophysicists and particle physicists conducting
>experiments with the ultimate goal of detecting the
>rare events which would occur if the galactic dark
>matter consists largely of a new Wimp, called a
>neutralino.
>
>
>The descent into the Boulby mine is thrilling. This is
>no ride like in a lift down from the top of a tall
>building. The dive is smooth and rapid. The miners and
>engineers who accompany you seem almost bored by it.
>
>From the base of the liftshaft, it is a short walk to
>the entrance to the laboratory.
>
>Lights and cables are strung along the side of the
>tunnel but occasionally one passes a side tunnel that
>is completely dark; not the dark of a dark night, but
>a deeper dark - somehow indescribable.
>
>I pulled a small flake of rock crystal protruding from
>the wall and brushed the dust off it. It was salty to
>the taste and scientifically that is good.
>
>The natural salt is low in radioactivity so it will
>not confuse the detectors.
>
>
>The world a thousand metres below ground is an eerie
>one. It is an unchanging place, in one way isolated
>from the rest of the Universe, in another more a part
>of it than almost anywhere else on Earth.
>
> Down here, the radiation and particles that bathe the
>surface of the planet are reduced to almost
>nothingness by the vast roof of rock above.
>
>But this shield is but nothing to any particles of
>dark matter that might wander through.
>
>The site and related facilities have now been
>refurbished and upgraded with a £3.1m grant that
>includes the construction of a new building on the
>surface and new lab facilities underground, creating
>what is almost certainly the best site in the world
>for dark matter research.
>
>Boulby now hosts one of the world's most sensitive
>dark matter detectors called Zeplin.
>
>A further experiment already making use of the new
>underground facilities is called Drift, which will be
>able to detect not only particle events but also the
>direction from which the particles come.
>
>The first results from Boulby are tantalising, but the
>secret of dark matter will not be won easily.
>
> Getting the sensitive equipment built down here and
>working is just the start.
i was realy excited reading this as my last name is boulby.
my last name is pronounced like this bullbee.
how is the labs name pronounced?
and how would i be able to go and see it?
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