This article originally appeared on KSL TV.

DELTA — Scientists at the University of Utah, along with others around the world, are taking a close look at deep space, with an unusual array of telescopes in the desert of Central Utah. About 1,000 square miles are covered with 60 telescope arrays, made up of specialized mirrors, and about 500 stations called scintillators.

Dr. John Matthews, a professor of physics at the U, anxiously waits for evidence of violent events to be captured by the wide net of telescopes and sensors.

Matthews said the mysterious events appear to be even more violent than a supernova. The evidence comes down in what’s called cosmic rays. They can’t be seen with the naked eye. While the hope is for the telescope arrays to capture the rays entering the atmosphere, the scintillators are there to grab what’s left as the particles spread out onto the desert surface.

“The events that you see with both detectors, that’s much more powerful, because now you can combine all this data and figure out more precisely … where did it come from,” Matthews said.

Inside the telescope array buildings, networked computers log terabytes of data for scientists to later decipher. They’re trying to narrow down a trail of where they originate, but getting a precise location can be extremely difficult.