new race detectors to find out why the universe exists

Inside a laboratory nestled above the Forests of the Southern Dakota forests, scientists are looking for the answer to one of the greatest questions in science: why does the universe exist?

They are in a race for the answer with a distinct team of Japanese scientists – who have several years to come.

The current theories of astronomy cannot explain why planets, stars and galaxies have emerged. The two teams build detectors who study an subatomic particle called Neutrino in the hope of finding answers.

American scientists hope that the answer is deeply underground, in the experience of deep underground neutrino (dune).

Scientists travel at 1,500 meters below the surface in three large underground caves. This is the scale that the construction teams and their bulldozers resemble small plastic toys in comparison.

The scientific director of Dune, Dr. Jaret Heise, describes giant caves as “cathedrals to science”.

Dr. Heise has been involved in the construction of these caves for almost ten years. They seal the noise and radiation dunes of the world above. Now Dune is now ready for the next step.

“We are about to build the detector that will change our understanding of the universe with instruments that will be deployed by a collaboration of 1,500 scientists who are impatient to answer the question of why we exist,” he said.

When the universe was created, two types of particles were created: the material – from which the stars, the planets and everything around us is made – and, in equal quantity, the antimatter, the exact opposite of Matter.

Theoretically, the two should have canceled themselves, leaving nothing other than a great explosion of energy. And yet, here – as we are.

Scientists believe that the response to understand why the material won – and we exist – lies in the study of a particle called Neutrino and its opposite antimatter, anti -Neutrino.

They will draw bundles from the two types of particles deeply underground in Illinois to southern Dakota detectors, 800 miles away.

Indeed, as they travel, neutrinos and anti-neuutrinos change slightly.

Scientists want to know if these changes are different for neutrinos and anti-neutrinos. If they are, it could lead them to the response of the reasons why matter and the fight against matter do not cancel.

Dune is an international collaboration, involving 1,400 scientists from thirty countries. Among them, Dr. Kate Shaw of Sussex University, who told me that store discoveries will be “transforming” our understanding of the universe and the vision of humanity of itself.

“It is really exciting that we are here now with technology, with engineering, with computer software skills to really be able to attack these big questions,” she said.

Half in the world, Japanese scientists use brilliant golden globes to search for the same answers. In all their splendor, look like a temple of science. Scientists build Hyper K – which will be a larger and better version of their existing neutrino detector, Super K.

The Japanese team will be ready to light their neutrinos beam in less than two years, several years earlier than the American project. Like dune, Hyper K is an international collaboration. Dr. Mark Scott of Imperial College, London thinks that his team is in pole position to make one of the greatest discoveries of the origin of the universe.

“We pass earlier and we have a larger detector, so we should have more sensitivity earlier than dune,” he said.

Having the two experiences in progress means that scientists will learn more than they do with only one, but, he says, “I would like to get there first!”

But Dr. Linda Creonesi, from Queen Mary University of London, who works for the American project, says that going there first may not give the team led by Japanese a complete image of what is really going on.

“There is one element of a breed, but hyper K does not yet have all the ingredients they need to understand if neutrinos and anti-neutrinos behave differently”.

The race can be activated, but the first results are only expected in a few years. The question of what happened at the start of time to give birth to us is a mystery – for the moment.