5 unbelievably cool research facilities
1. Super Kamiokande Detector, Kamioka Observatory, Japan
"Super-K is located 1,000m underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida city, Gifu, Japan. It consists of 50,000 tons of pure water surrounded by about 11,200 photomultiplier tubes. The cylindrical structure is 41.4 m tall and 39.3 m across.
Along with looking like something out of Event Horizon, Super-K was built to detect the properties of neutrinos by observing them with extreme precision."
2. Benefield Anechoic Facility, California, U.S
"Nestled in the Mojave Desert in the heartland of California is an interesting acoustic phenomenon: the world’s largest anechoic chamber. Located on the Edwards Air Force Base, the Benefield Anechoic Facility is an important and rare part of the Air Force Flight Test Center. Though the Air Force Flight Test Center was first activated in 1951, the Benefield Anechoic Facility did not become a mainstay until the mid-80’s.
For those not already familiar with anechoic chambers, they are rather large rooms that are constructed in such a manner that there are no echoes or reverberation. More commonly recognized for acoustic purposes, where reflections that normally affect frequency response can be avoided, anechoic chambers are also useful for Radio Frequency testing as well. This is precisely what the Benefield Anechoic Facility is for."
3. The Z Machine, Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico, U.S
"The Z machine is the largest x-ray generator on earth and is believed by many as the key to understanding controlled fusion.
It uses a short burst of intense electricity – only a few 10 billionths of a second long – that forces an ionized gas to implode. the process is called a z-pinch because the pulse creates a magnetic field that squeezes particles in the vertical direction, which math books usually label as the “z-axis.” at the center of the z-pinch, in the space of a small soup can, gas particles race at each other at a million miles an hour. the collisions result in X-rays and extremely high temperatures.
I 2006 the machine unexpectedly produced plasmas with temperatures in excess of 3.6 billion °f. that’s hotter than the core of our sun."
4. Very Large Array, New Mexico, U.S
"Arranged on an enormous y-shaped set of tracks on the plains of san augustin is the ‘very large array’, a collection of 27 radio antennas used primarily by astronomers around the world. each antenna weighs 230 tons and can be moved by way of the 3 13 mile long tracks, giving a total of 4 different configurations, the data from all 27 antenna can then be combined to give the resolution of an antenna whopping 22 miles across."
5. Large Hadron Collider, Cern, Switzerland/France
"The large hadron collider, when completed very soon, will be the largest particle collider on earth, one of the intentions being to recreate the slightly hot conditions that occured immediately after the big bang, in turn resulting in the observation of the ‘god particle‘. the huge circle in the 1st photo is the location of the lhc tunnel, located approximately 100m below ground and measuring 27km in circumference.
In the tunnel are 2 parallel tubes, each carrying protons in opposite directions at near the speed of light using the surrounding superconducting magnets."
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