In a laboratory situated above South Dakota forests, scientists are looking for the answer to one of the biggest questions of science: Why does the universe exist?

They are looking for answers with a separate team of Japanese scientists - they will be in the coming years.

Current astronomy theories cannot explain why planets, stars and galaxies appear. Both teams are building detectors to study a subatomic particle called neutrinos, hoping to find the answer.

American scientists hope the answer is deep underground, in the aptly named deep underground neutrino experiment (Dune).

Scientists entered three vast underground caves 1,500 meters below the ground. By contrast, the construction workers and their bulldozers look like small plastic toys at the scale.

Dr. Jaret Heise, director of science at Dunes, describes the huge cave as a "cathedral of science."

Dr. Heise has been involved in the construction of these caves for nearly a decade. They freed the dunes from the world above from noise and radiation. Now, the dunes are now ready for the next phase.

"We are ready to build detectors to change our understanding of the universe through the collaboration of 1,500 scientists, and these tools will be eager to answer questions about why we exist," he said.

When the universe was created, two particles were created: matter - from which stars, planets and all matter around it were made - and in equal quantities (antimatter).

Theoretically, the two should cancel each other, leaving only a lot of energy. However, we are here - here.

Scientists believe that the answer to understanding the reason why matter wins - we exist - is studying a particle called a neutrino and its antimatter antimatter.

They will emit beams of two particles from deep underground in Illinois to detectors in South Dakota 800 miles away.

This is because when they travel, the changes in neutrinos and anti-neutral bacteria change so slightly.

Scientists want to find out if these changes in neutrino and anti-neurotic rule differ. If so, this may lead them to answer why matter and antimatter do not cancel each other out.

Dunes is an international collaboration involving 1,400 scientists from 30 countries. Among them is Dr. Kate Shaw from the University of Sussex, who told me that the discovery in the store will be “transformative” our understanding of the universe and humanity’s perception of ourselves.

"It's exciting that we can really attack these big problems now with technology, engineering, and computer software skills," she said.

Half the world, Japanese scientists are using the Shiny Golden Globe Awards to find the same answer. In all their splendor, it looks like a temple of science. Scientists are building Hyper K - which will be a bigger, better version of their existing neutrino detector Super K.

The Japanese-led team will be ready to turn on the micron beam in less than two years, several years ahead of the U.S. project. Just like the dunes, Hyper K is an international collaboration. Dr. Mark Scott of Imperial College London believes his team is in pole position and becomes one of the biggest discoveries of the origin of the universe ever.

"We opened earlier and there was a bigger detector, so we should be faster than the dunes," he said.

The two experiments were conducted together, which meant that scientists would learn more than they just did, but, he said, “I want to get there first!”

But Dr. Linda Cremonesi of Queens University, who works for the U.S. program, said getting there first might not give the Japanese-led team the full story of what really happened.

"There is an element of race, but Hyper K does not have all the components they need to know if the behavior of neutrinos and anti-intermediate nerves is different."

The game may begin, but the first result can only be within a few years. For the moment, the question of the time we survive is still a mystery.