RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Thousands of people stopped by Lead and Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) Saturday for the city\u2019s annual Neutrino Day celebration.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cNeutrino Day is a celebration of all things science hosted by the Sanford Underground Research Facility and the community of Lead,\u201d SURF Media Relations Manager Mike Ray said. \u201cIt\u2019s a city-wide science festival that happens every year on the second Saturday of July and it has been a fantastic day.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Saturday\u2019s pleasant weather in the Northern Hills, Neutrino Day organizers saw a healthy turnout.<\/p>\n
Neutrinos are neutrally-charged subatomic particles. Despite their abundance in the universe, they are difficult to detect.<\/p>\n
Neutrino research at SURF is about to ramp up significantly. In early 2026, the team of scientists and engineers will begin constructing the first of four neutrino detectors nearly a mile underground. Once completed, SURF will partner with Fermilab<\/a> in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). <\/p>\n \u201cBy going a mile underground, we protect ourselves, we hide ourselves, essentially, from cosmic neutrinos,\u201d DUNE Project Manager Jolie Macier said. \u201cAnd then we can detect, instead, the ones that we are sending from Fermilab.\u201d<\/p>\n SURF is located about 800 miles from Fermilab – a distance Fermilab Physicist Vishvas Pandey described as ideal. Sending a neutrino from one location to another would be a significant scientific breakthrough.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big, big deal,\u201d Pandey said. \u201cAs a physics community, as scientists, we have been looking forward for decades to have a megaproject like this. Because neutrinos are tiny and shy and mysterious, but they hold the key to some of the biggest questions in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here<\/a> to report it.<\/p>\n