MINOS+

MINOS+ was a long-baseline neutrino physics experiment, not an astronomical observatory, stretching 735 kilometres between Fermilab in Illinois and the Soudan Mine in Minnesota.

About MINOS+

MINOS+ was the continuation of the MINOS experiment (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search), designed to measure neutrino oscillation with improved electronics. Its near detector sat at Fermilab in Illinois, and its far detector was located 735 kilometres away in the Soudan Mine, Minnesota.

History

The original MINOS experiment ran from 2005 to 2012. MINOS+ began taking data in 2013 with upgraded electronics and ran for about three years before the experiment ended and a six-month dismantling project began in early October 2016.

The detectors & research

The near detector at Fermilab was a 980-tonne magnetised steel and scintillator detector, while the far detector in Soudan Mine weighed 5.4 kilotonnes. Both were built from alternating steel plates and polystyrene scintillator strips, and the experiment measured atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters through muon-neutrino disappearance and electron-neutrino appearance, using both low-energy and medium-energy beam configurations.

Location & getting there

MINOS+'s two sites were far apart by design: the near detector at Fermilab in Illinois, and the far detector deep in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota, chosen to give the neutrino beam time to oscillate over its 735-kilometre path.

Visiting MINOS+

MINOS+ finished data-taking and was dismantled starting in October 2016, so there is no longer an active experiment to visit; Fermilab's own site continues to host public tours and outreach programmes for visitors interested in particle physics.

See your named star from here

MINOS+ traced neutrinos through solid rock rather than starlight, but wherever its old detector sites stand, the same sky is overhead. Find the coordinates of a star named through Star Register any time in the star catalogue.