[Music]
Sometimes, to examine the smallest building
blocks of the universe, you have to go big.
This is one of the two ProtoDUNE detectors,
the largest
liquid argon particle detectors in the world.
Each of these behemoths is designed to hold
800 metric tons of detector material
used  to record particle tracks.
They are small prototypes compared to the
detector modules of
the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be 20 times larger.
DUNE is an international project hosted by
the Department of Energy’s Fermilab.
It will investigate whether particles called
neutrinos could help explain
why matter exists in the universe.
The experiment will feature four detector
modules.
Each will have roughly the footprint of an
Olympic swimming pool
but be six times as deep.
Located 1.5 kilometers underground at the
Sanford Underground Research Facility,
they’ll catch neutrinos sent by Fermilab’s powerful
accelerator complex through 1300 kilometers of earth.
They’ll also look for neutrinos from exploding
stars and aim to discover new subatomic processes
such as proton decay.
Building something at this gigantic scale
means even the prototype detectors
have to  be huge.
Each cube is five stories tall and was carefully
assembled at CERN's neutrino platform.
These test beds are crucial for performing
final tests with the cutting-edge technologies
developed by DUNE collaborators in more than
30 countries.
They will enable scientists to tweak the final
design of the components
that will go into DUNE, such as these wire planes.
These assemblies have thousands of precisely
placed wires that capture and transmit the
signal from particle tracks that are generated
within the detector.
About 150 of these panels will be needed to
fill a single DUNE detector module.
The ProtoDUNE detectors also test the cryostat,
the interior vessel that keeps the argon at
a frosty negative 300 degrees Fahrenheit (or
negative 184 degrees Celsius).
And it’s a trial for multiple other pieces
as well, like the light sensors,
data acquisition system, and electronics.
Once the two prototypes have successfully
recorded their first particle tracks, scientists
will be a big step closer to constructing
DUNE.
It's a massive undertaking to investigate
the minuscule particles that could be the key
to understanding how our universe evolved.
