Soudan Underground Laboratory Investigates "Dark Matter" Mysteries and Origins of the Universe

It sounds like something out of Star Wars – but this is way better. And way beyond anything you or I ever learned in high school physics.

Shielded from cosmic rays and noise, about half a mile underground, scientists and researchers at the University of Minnesota’s world renowned Soudan Underground Laboratory are working to unlock the mystery behind dark matter, the invisible stuff that may actually constitute 90% of our universe. As well as the mystery behind particles called ‘neutrinos’ that could help us discover the very origins and operations of the galaxies.

The CDMS II (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) experiment seeks the recipe for dark matter. As our guides explained, scientists don’t really know what dark matter is. But they believe the main ingredient is a particle called WIMPS – a heavy, slow, invisible and virtually undetectable bit of matter that exerts immense gravitational force.

The MINOS project (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) investigates extremely tiny, seldom seem particles called neutrinos, most of which are made naturally by cosmic rays and the sun. Scientists believe that by studying neutrinos, we can learn much about how the universe was formed and how it operates.

The source of the neutrinos is 457 miles away in Chicago, where the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab constantly fires a beam of particles at a detector in the Soudan laboratory, located in a 270-foot room with a ceiling 40 feet high.

You really need to see this operation for yourself. Click here for tour information on the UofM's website: http://www.physics.umn.edu/outreach/soudan/index.html Believe me, it’s worth the trip.