Telescope Array Scintillation Detector (IMAGE)
Caption
The table-like scintillation detector on the right is among 507 now arrayed across 300 square miles of Utah desert as part of the existing, $25 million Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory operated by the University of Utah in an international effort to learn the source of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, the most energetic particles in the universe. In the distance on the left is the Middle Drum flourescence detector building - one of three such facilities in the existing observatory. Under a proposed $6.4 million expansion, another 460 scintillation detectors will be added so the array will cover almost 1,000 square miles, and two more fluorescence detectors will be added if funding can be obtained. The fluorescence detectors measure faint blue flashes in the sky when an incoming cosmic ray hits a gas molecule in the atmosphere. The scintillation detectors measure "air shower" particles that cascade to the ground when a cosmic ray hits a gas molecule.
Credit
John Matthews, University of Utah
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