Skip to main content

Portfolio News and Multimedia

Image
LLNL-led Project to Advance Muon-Based Imaging in DARPA-Funded Initiative

Today we can see inside seemingly impossible places thanks to muon imaging. This technique uses muons, which can penetrate far deeper than possible with x rays.  But this process is also slow. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are working to change that with a new initiative called Intense and Compact Muon Sources for Science and Security (ICMuS2).

Partnering with industry and academic researchers, the initiative seeks to rapidly generate these particles using high power lasers. The project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Muons for Science and Security Program.

Image
Lab instrument now on two-billion-mile journey to the metallic asteroid Psyche

An instrument designed and built by LLNL researchers departed Earth last week on a two-billion-mile, nearly six-year journey through space to explore a rare, largely metal asteroid.

The Livermore high-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma-ray sensor is an essential part of a larger gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) built in collaboration with researchers from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHAPL) in Laurel, Maryland. It is part of a suite of instruments set to make the first-ever visit to Psyche, the largest metal asteroid in the solar system. The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University (ASU).

Radiation Detection Technologies