Gammasphere

The Gammasphere is a third generation gamma ray spectrometer used to study rare and exotic nuclear physics.

It consists of 110 Compton-suppressed large volume, high-purity germanium detectors arranged in a spherical shell.

Most experiments involve using heavy ion nuclear fusion to form a highly excited atomic nucleus.

This nucleus may then emit protons, neutrons, or alpha particles followed by a shower of tens of gamma rays.

The actual Gammasphere, which detects rather than emits gamma rays, was used as a model for the device shown in the movie.