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Alex Cabrero reporting Head into the deserts of Millard County near Delta, and there's a good chance you'll find things that weren't there yesterday. It's all part of a project that has taken years to get to this point.
The desert in that area will be the starting point in the search for high energy cosmic rays.
One by one, and as carefully as possible, hospital-bed looking contraptions were set all across the desert in Millard County, much to Pierre Sokolsky's delight.
Pierre Sokolsky, Physics Professor, University of Utah: "We've been planning this for at least two years, and probably if you go back to the original idea, maybe 10 years."
The devices are particle detectors; searching for and taking in cosmic rays from beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Pierre Sokolsky, Physics Professor, University of Utah: "We've been studying these ultra high energy ray particles for many years."
A few years ago, one such cosmic ray was detected in Dugway. It is still the single highest bundle of energy ever recorded.
Pierre Sokolsky, Physics Professor, University of Utah: "The concentration of energy was just phenomenal, and so this has got a lot of astro-physicists really excited because we haven't got a clue as to where they're coming from."
That is why the project was created. Using these detectors, scientists hope to figure these cosmic rays out.
Kai Martens, Physicist, University of Utah: "There's something happening somewhere out there in the universe that we do not fully understand."
The area in Millard county was chosen because of its remoteness, its clean fresh air, and its clear, starry nights.
Pierre Sokolsky, Physics Professor, University of Utah: "Utah is actually one of the big centers for this kind of research now."
Research that one day, might unlock another of our universe's mysteries: The high energy cosmic ray.
Pierre Sokolsky, Physics Professor, University of Utah: "They're messengers from some process that we don't understand, and anytime you have something that energetic and that violent, you know you're on the track of a big thing."
The University of Utah's physics department is playing a big part in this project, as are scientists from Japan. They hope to start collecting rays this coming Spring.
