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| Image of the Sun taken at Night |
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| A model of KamiokaNDE |
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| Photo Multiplier Tubes |
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| Two guys in a boat fishing inside the detector |
On 12 November 2001, about 6,600 of the photomultiplier tubes imploded in a chain reaction, as the shock wave from the concussion of each imploding tube cracked its neighbours. The detector was partially restored from April to October 2002 by redistributing the photomultiplier tubes which did not implode, and by adding protective acrylic shells that are hoped will prevent another chain reaction from recurring (Super-Kamiokande-II). - Wikipedia
Looking for pictures of the catastrophe, I found this excellent video:
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| National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California |
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.
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| Virgo Gravitational Wave Detector |
The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector is a Michelson interferometer, which can detect the minuscule length variations in its two 3 km (1.9 mi) arms induced by the passage of gravitational waves. The required precision is achieved using many systems to isolate it from the outside world, including keeping its mirrors and instrumentation in an ultra-high vacuum and suspending them using complex systems of pendula.
Between its periodic observations, the detector is upgraded to increase its sensitivity. The observation runs are performed in collaboration with other similar detectors, including the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories (LIGO) in the United States and the Japanese Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA), because cooperation between several detectors is crucial for detecting gravitational waves and pinpointing their origin.
Virgo was conceived and built when gravitational waves were only a prediction of general relativity. The project, named after the Virgo galaxy cluster, was approved in 1992 and construction was completed in 2003. After several years without detection, Virgo was shut down in 2011 for the "Advanced Virgo" upgrades. In 2015, the first observation of gravitational waves was made by the two LIGO detectors, while Virgo was still being upgraded. Virgo resumed observations in early August 2017, making its first detection on 14 August (together with the LIGO detectors); this was quickly followed by the detection of the GW170817 gravitational wave, the only one also observed with classical methods (optical, gamma-ray, X-ray and radio telescopes) as of 2024.
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| Aerial view of Virgo 15 miles southeast of Pisa, Italy |
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| ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN |
ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. . . . ATLAS was one of the two LHC experiments involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson in July 2012.
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| Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector, one of the general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. |
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It has a broad physics programme ranging from studying the Standard Model (including the Higgs boson) to searching for extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter. Although it has the same scientific goals as the ATLAS experiment, it uses different technical solutions and a different magnet-system design.
The CMS detector is built around a huge solenoid magnet. This takes the form of a cylindrical coil of superconducting cable that generates a field of 4 tesla, about 100,000 times the magnetic field of the Earth. The field is confined by a steel “yoke” that forms the bulk of the detector’s 14,000-tonne weight.
An unusual feature of the CMS detector is that instead of being built in-situ like the other giant detectors of the LHC experiments, it was constructed in 15 sections at ground level before being lowered into an underground cavern near Cessy in France and reassembled. The complete detector is 21 metres long, 15 metres wide and 15 metres high.
The CMS experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, involving about 5500 particle physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from 241 institutes in 54 countries (May 2022). For the latest information, see here.
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| 3D rendering of the ITER tokamak at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France |
Black & white jigsaw puzzles are ten times tougher than ones with color.
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| Interior of the French Tokamak in Cadaraches |
The entire complex is blurred out on Google Maps. Huh.
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| EAST vacuum vessel |
They work because the tire is rotating around its *center of mass*. If the tire has a heavy spot, the center of mass is going to be offset towards it, Meaning even though the heavy spot itself wants to be flung outward from a static reference frame, from the rotating reference frame of the tire, the heavy spot is actually staying closer to the center and the light spot is being flung outwards the farthest. The beads, which are free to move and not a connected to the tire at all only move via centripetal force of the tire trying to pull them back to the center, and they'll collect in the high spot which is the light spot.
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| One of the guest villas at Hearst Castle |
Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947. Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth.
While William made a fortune, he also started with a fortune that came from his father. Where did George make his money? The Homestake Mine:
The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet) located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces of gold during its lifetime. . . .
The Homestake Mine is famous in scientific circles because of the work of a deep underground laboratory that was established there in the mid-1960s. This was the site where the solar neutrino problem was first discovered, in what is known as the Homestake Experiment.
