A bird’s-eye view of the Muon g-2 ring, 50-foot electromagnet has attained rock star status on its trip from New York to Chicago.GLEN ELLYN, Ill. – It skipped tolls. It had a Twitter hashtag and a GPS tracker. It even posed for photos with groupies.
The 50-foot-wide, 15-ton electromagnet attracted a sensation wherever it went during its slow, delicate 3,200-mile journey from New York to suburban Chicago. The land-and-sea trip culminated when scientists threw a rock star’s welcome for the mysterious, shrink-wrapped cargo on Friday as it arrived at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to help study blazing-fast particles.
“‘Oh look, they found a flying saucer!”‘ retired software developer Chris Otis recalled thinking when he saw the massive, disc-shaped device when it made a pit-stop in a Costco parking lot.
Otis used his cellphone to take photos as he and others marveling the contraption wondered what would happen if it suddenly went live. Electromagnets need an electric current to work.
“I figure somebody at Fermilab is going to plug the damn thing in, turn it on and my watch is going to stop running, everybody’s hearing aides are going to sail across the room,” Otis said with a laugh. “I have no idea. Turn it on and the Martians will hone in on it.”