The Sanford Lab's Large Underground Xenon experiment, or LUX for short, is installed nearly a mile underground. Just recently the lab announced that the experiment is completely submerged in pure water that will help block even the most powerful of cosmic rays from interrupting their search for dark matter. In just a few months scientists say they will be able to activate the LUX's detector to test the WIMP theory of dark matter.

Detector working-group leader Jeremy Mock says, "We're looking for what we call 'Weakly Interacting Massive Particles' that, behave like neutrons. They're neutral particles but they don't interact like normal particles do. They interact like you're playing pool. You have a WIMP particle that interacts with the detector and actually hits and physically scatters off of the detector."

Researchers say they hope to have the first pieces of dark matter data out of the experiment within the first few months of 2013.

Brendyn Medina