Telescope Array Fluorescence Detector Station (IMAGE)
Caption
This time-lapse photo shows the Middle Drum fluorescence detector station at the sprawling $25 million Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory near Delta, Utah. The current observatory includes three such telescope stations, which contain mirrors to detect faint blue flashes in the sky when an incoming cosmic ray hits gas in the atmosphere. Under a proposed $6.4 million expansion, two more such stations would be added, and the observatory's existing array of 507 table-like scintilation counters (not shown) would be increased to 967 and spread over almost 1,000 square miles, compared with the present 300 square miles. The instruments are used by scientists from Japan, the University of Utah and several other nations to determine the mysterious source of the most powerful particles in the universe, ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.
Credit
Ben Stokes, University of Utah
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