Going underground to uncover the mysteries of the universe
There are many things we still don’t know about the universe, including the mysterious substance known as dark matter, which makes up 85% of the mass of the cosmos. That’s where the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) comes in.
SUPL is the only laboratory of its kind in the southern hemisphere and the new epicentre of dark matter research.
Dark matter is all around us. We’ve just never seen it, because dark matter particles don’t absorb, reflect or emit light.
Thanks to a national partnership of five Australian universities— including two in Victoria, the University of Melbourne (UoM) and Swinburne University of Technology (SUT)—along with leading international organisations, researchers are advancing the study of dark matter.
Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) are expected to use the lab in the future for scientific investigations.
To do this, SUPL was built one kilometre below ground in the Stawell Gold Mine, supported by $10 million from the Victorian and Australian governments.
‘The reason that SUPL is located over one kilometre underground is to provide shielding from cosmic rays and other forms of radiation that we experience on the surface of the earth,’ said Manager of SUPL, Kim Mintern-Lane.
These unique conditions make SUPL a world-class research facility capable of supporting experiments that will build a better understanding of our universe.
This includes being home to the SABRE (Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection) detector, which will be used to investigate dark matter particles.
Components of the detector are being tested across Australia before being installed in SUPL for its first experiment.
‘We make the discoveries here, but the benefits are felt more broadly in the economy from the technology we develop and the techniques we improve. That's why Victoria is a smart state,’ said Swinburne University of Technology Astronomer, Professor Alan Duffy.
For more information, visit the SUPL website.
