Cosmic Ray Detectors - University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 47.544 W 087° 36.269
16T E 449775 N 4626903
One of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever carried on a NASA space shuttle sits in a Chicago alley.
Waymark Code: WM118HA
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/06/2019
Views: 5
More from Atlas Obscura (
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"A battered white object marked “NASA” sitting in an alley next to an equally battered white sphere and a yellow storage container. The storage container holds the remains of the “Chicago Egg,” a 2.5-ton, 12-foot tall cosmic ray detector that flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985 as part of the Spacelab 2 (STS-51F) mission. It was among the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever to fly on a NASA space shuttle.
After the tragic Challenger explosion the following year and the subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet, researchers switched to high-altitude balloons to bring their cosmic ray detectors to the edge of space. The two battered white objects are from these later balloon-bourne missions."
More from the Chicago Tribune on 8/1/1985 -
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"Scientific equipment aboard Challenger includes a 2 1/2-ton, 12-foot-high instrument built by the university and nicknamed the ''Chicago egg'' for its shape. Using light sensors, the $10 million device is designed to detect and provide computer readouts on the makeup of cosmic rays. This is one of the Challenger-Spacelab 2 mission`s 13 scientific experiments. It is arguably the only one working better than expected."
An article from the U of C Magazine June 2002 (
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provides an obituary for Peter Meyer "professor emeritus in physics and former director of the Enrico Fermi Institute. From 1978 to 1983 Meyer directed the Fermi Institute and in the mid-1980s helped launch an egg-shaped cosmic-ray detector on the space shuttle Challenger. From 1986 to 1989 he chaired the physics department."
Location: The alley is off of E 56th St, also accessed by a pathway off S Drexel Ave. The objects are behind a small building in a parking lot next to the university’s Research Computing Center.
I believe most people won't notice this because of its obscure location, nor stop to wonder what it is. Leave it to Atlas Obscura to locate this! (FYI I used the coordinates of Cape Canaveral as the original location.)