Awesome Detectors

MINOS
MINOS, or Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, is a two-detector experiment at Fermilab that began studying neutrino oscillations in 2003. It uses a beam of neutrinos that first pass through a detector at Fermilab, the inside of which is seen in this image, and then through one hundreds of miles away deep within the Soudan Iron Mine in northern Minnesota. The distance between the two detectors maximizes the probability that the neutrinos will have revealing interactions over the course of their journey. An international collaboration of particle physicists at Fermilab uses MINOS to investigate the puzzle of neutrino mass. The 98-foot-long detector consists of 486 massive octagonal planes, lined up like the slices of a loaf of bread. Each plane is made of a sheet of steel covered on one side with a layer of plastic that emits light when struck by a charged particle. MINOS will help researchers answer some of the fundamental questions of particle physics, especially how particles acquire mass.