The Telescope Array Project—the multinational cosmic ray observatory that calls Delta home—is undergoing an expansion with the placement of double the current number of surface detectors over a wider area. New telescopes are planned for observation posts on Middle Drum and Black Rock Mesa as well.
Starting last month, scientists from the University of Utah and the University of Tokyo began monitoring the placement of about 260 new ground detectors, ping-pong table-sized devices called scintillators. The detectors are being placed by helicopter in the desert north and south of Delta. A couple of hundred more detectors will be placed in the fall, effectively doubling the number of detectors currently in operation.
The expansion, will cost about $4.5 million, most of that funding coming from Japan. Expansion work was slated to begin in January, but was stalled by the recent federal government shutdown. Millard County Chronicle Progress
