That tremendous depth makes Homestake the perfect hunting ground for rare, elusive particles that stubbornly refuse to interact with the rest of the world, like neutrinos and hypothetical particles that could explain dark matter.

Similar detectors already exist in Italy, Japan, Canada and Minnesota. But the 8,000-foot-deep pit possible at Homestake would be deeper than them all, nearly as deep as Mount St. Helens is high. According to the lab's website, a deep lab at Homestake would more than double the world’s inventory of underground lab space.

The National Science Foundation selected the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake as the site of the new Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab (DUSEL) in 2007, and physicists have already started moving in. Wired.com visited the mine-turned-lab to see the first glimmers of the dark matter rush.

Image: Lisa Grossman/Wired.com

Authors: Lisa Grossman

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