Outer space on a budget
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Senior John Marino and Professor of Physics John D. Cunningham, S.J., are measuring cosmic rays with a $50 antenna. |
Although it sounds like something straight out of 1950s sci-fi, the duo’s study of energetic particles from outer space is real—and surprisingly inexpensive. Father Cunningham and Marino have managed to conduct their experiment with a simple, 10-foot, $50 dipole antenna and $500 worth of equipment.
This experiment is the brainchild of Father Cunningham and a group of particle physicists at Argonne National Laboratory. They’re creating a way to identify and measure energetic particles, a process that typically costs $10,000 per square kilometer.
The Cudahy Science building provided Father Cunningham and Marino with a perfect location to set up their antenna. They tuned in to a signal from Channel 4 in Davenport, IA—a station located directly over the curvature of the earth from the Loyola building—and began to observe everything in the atmosphere that scatters the signal between Davenport and their antenna. The antenna connects to a software program in the basement that graphs these radio signals.
“We see airplanes, lightning bolts, and meteors, as well as these cosmic rays,” says Father Cunningham.
The observation of these rays could eventually lead to an increased understanding of matter in the universe—more than half of which cannot presently be accounted for. And all from a $50 device that was put up in one day.
“I think the important lesson in this project is that good science doesn’t have to be big science,” Father Cunningham says.
Marino presented the duo’s research at the American Physical Society Conference in April. He and Father Cunningham hope that other schools will do similar experiments and network their results, thus giving scientists a larger area in which to look for cosmic rays.