Dark-Matter Detector to Begin Operations Soon in China

China is entering the race to detect mysterious dark matter in a big way, with a huge facility in Sichuan province set to begin collecting data in the coming weeks.

The $8 million PandaX (Particle and Astrophysical Xenon) experiment — which lies 7,874 feet (2,400 meters) underground, inside a mountain made of marble — will be up and running early this year, IEEE Spectrum reported recently on Discovery News. When it comes online, PandaX will join the world's other subterranean dark-matter experiments, such as the XENON project in Italy and the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) effort in South Dakota.

These experiments work on the same principle. They're looking for particles emitted when weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) — the postulated major component of dark matter, which is thought to make up more than 80 percent of all mass in the universe — collide with the nuclei of "normal" atoms inside a big tank of liquid xenon. PandaX and the other projects need to be underground, where they're shielded from most of the cosmic radiation that could generate similar signals.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

Michael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.