image: A table-like scintillation detector sits in the Utah desert, powered by a solar panel. A grid of 564 such devices will be installed in a 400-square-mile area west of Delta, Utah, as part of the $17 million Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory. The scintillation detectors will measure "air shower" particles that hit Earth after incoming cosmic rays smash into gas particles in Earth's atmosphere. view more
Credit: Masaki Fukushima, University of Tokyo.