Wichita State University professors collaborating on a Fermilab high-energy experiment got a great present today (Dec. 5). The team powered up a new control center housed in the basement of Jabara Hall that will allow them to remotely monitor the progress of the Fermilab NOvA experiment in real time.

The NOvA experiment beams high-intensity particles from the Fermilab facility near Chicago through the earth to a huge detector array in northern Minnesota, more than 500 miles away. Researchers are looking for oscillations in neutrinos, which will help them understand the role neutrinos played in the evolution of the universe and their contribution to its mass.

Professor Nickolas Solomey says control center, provided in part by a gift from the WSU Foundation's Bill Simon Research Fund, means the researchers won't have to make as many trips to Chicago to gather data and monitor the experiment's progress.

Read the original story on the NOvA project.