Awesome Detectors

Super-Kamiokande
This detector began operating in 1996, more than half a mile underground in a zinc mine in Kamioka, Japan. Japanese and American scientists erected a huge tank of water 138 feet tall to hunt for neutrinos. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the 12.5-million-gallon tank are lined with 11,242 light-sensitive phototubes. These pick up and measure bluish streaks of light called Cherenkov radiation, which is left behind as neutrinos travel through the water. Super-Kamiokande detects neutrinos that nuclear interactions in the sun and atmosphere produce. In 2001, after several promising discoveries related to potential neutrino mass, the Super-Kamiokande was crippled when several thousand of its light detectors exploded. Repairs on the detector should be completed in 2007.