Image: Illustration by Don Foley; Source for ISS model: NASA
In Brief
- The space shuttle Endeavour lifts off on April 29 for its final mission: to deliver a $1.5 billion cosmic-ray detector to the International Space Station.
- Designed to measure highly energetic particles through whizz through space, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will look for signs of dark matter and galaxies made of antimatter.
- The instrument is the first with the ability to measure all the key properties of a particle and thereby discriminate mundane particles such as protons from more exotic ones such as antielectrons.
More In This Article
The world’s most advanced cosmic-ray detector took 16 years and $2 billion to build, and not long ago it looked as though it would wind up mothballed in some warehouse. NASA, directed to finish building the space station and retire the space shuttle by the end of 2010, said it simply did not have room in its schedule to launch the instrument anymore. Saving it took a lobbying campaign by physicists and intervention by Congress to extend the shuttle program. And so the shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to take off on April 19 for the express purpose of delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station.
Cosmic rays are subatomic particles and atomic nuclei that zip and zap through space, coming from ordinary stars, supernovae explosions, neutron stars, black holes and who knows what—the last category naturally being of greatest interest and the main impetus for a brand-new instrument. Dark matter is one of those possible mystery sources. Clumps of the stuff out in space might occasionally release blazes of particles that would set the detectors alight. Some physicists also speculate that our planet might be peppered with the odd antiatom coming from distant galaxies made not of matter but of its evil antitwin.
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15 Comments
Add CommentNot holding my breath....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPS..the launch was scrubbed today...maybe Monday May 2nd...
Apparently, perpetual failure to detect dark matter is not evidence of its non-existence, only justification for funding additional research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgreed. (This site so needs a Like function)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease Scientific American
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. indent replies to people under the original comment
2. Put a like function in so people can agree to comments
Can we hope that finding dark matter will help us solve more down-to-earth problems like survival in the "recession" that may get worse for the next few decades, as well as getting rid of the commercials in the comments?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes. Clearly denying NASA of its funding, which amounts to less than one half of one percent of our national budget, is the way to go to get the economy back on track. Also, I too agree that lack of proof is entirely equivalent to disproof. I'm glad to see some truly scientific minds represented in these comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter 40 years, even a real scientist should consider more viable alternatives, like perhaps Kepler's 'laws' of planetary motion apply specifically to sparse gravitational systems whose orbital bodies' masses are relatively negligible and and whose orbits are generally unperturbed. These limitations were in fact proven by Newton in his "Principia" - a very long time ago...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisForcing distributed mass galaxies to behave like planetary systems would require some kind imaginary dark matter, but then that would be foolish, unless you followed long established orbital system gravitational evaluation procedures, as was required of astronomers...
I'm sorry, I was unaware that physicists were silly enough to use laws designed for two body systems to analyze galaxy clusters, and then just patch up the holes in their faulty calculations with an out of this world concept like dark matter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is the paper that generally established the idea that undetectable mass must be present in spiral galaxies to explain why their rotational properties aren't consistent with the characteristic Keplerian rotational curve: "Rotational properties of 21 SC galaxies with a large range of luminosities and radii, from NGC 4605 /R = 4kpc/ to UGC 2885 /R = 122 kpc/", V.C. Rubin et al., (1980), http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1980ApJ...238..471R
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an old scanned image, not a text encoded document, so character strings cannot found. It'll take some work but use your eyes to look for 'Kepler'.
While you're at it, please make some effort to crack down on the spammers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisClearly denying NASA of its funding, which amounts to less than one half of one percent of our national budget, -IS NOT- the way to go to get the economy back on track.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the money invested in the last sixty year are denying that. Deny Funds to Science is not the way to go to get the economy back on track. What would be this world with Sixty years without investing in Science
Clearly denying NASA of its funding, which amounts to less than one half of one percent of our national budget, -IS NOT- the way to go to get the economy back on track.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll the money invested in the last sixty year are denying that. Deny Funds to Science is not the way to go to get the economy back on track. What would be this world with Sixty years without investing in Science
I was thinking that what if during the big bang the whole thing did not only expanded but also started to turn around itself. So that it reached a point when the velocity of turning became light speed. In other words, we are living in a sphere where the outside rim is turning at light speed. Thus everything is pulled towards it, of which effect we call dark energy. It also explains why no light or information are coming back toward us. It may also explain the rotation of galaxies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur universe is expanding soup bubble of gravitoethertons enclosed by antimatter universe on opposite entropy path in the backdrop of infinite mega universe. Gravitoethertons are produced by annihilation of matter and antimatter in common boundary and injected into our universe to expand accelerating further. Now this gravitoethertons are a pack of five god particles to endow our universe with gravity and other laws. Due to very small exotic nature we may not directly detect gravitoethertons but LHC experiment may prove it one day. We are like fish in water and see whirling and swirling of gravitoethertons as planets in orbit etc etc. But this soup is non uniform in field density which is mono magnetic coupling and as such EINSTEIN postulates are wrong and RELATIVITY is wrong. NEWTON is also to be revised as F=P.G.M.m/R.R where P is factor of PERMEABILITY due to non uniform universe. How this mono magnetism produce AVOGADROS LAW or EQUAL FALL OF GALILEO is explained further by DURGADAS DATTA in PUSH THEORY OF GRAVITY at molecular level irrespective of molecular mass so that we see equal number in AVOGADROS or equal fall by GALILEO and HOW WE HAVE TO REVISE BOHRS MODEL TAKING THIS SOUP FACTOR IN SPACE BETWEEN ATOMIC NUCLI is very interesting for further research and NEW PHYSICS OF TOMORROW.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo reason with anything one must first know the true reason.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI N F O C E L L
The information cell emitting from matter, antimatter, forces or what is called dark matter (energy) is in fact a cell. This cell is of evolution and will forever continue to divide and evolve.
Forces of equal evolution act upon forces of equal evolution. In a packed state this dividing info cell materializes of its information, subject to environment (evolution).
A dividing info cell is a reaction and a reaction will be used some time, some where, some how by something.
The uncomprehending many are continually being dispersed out into the universe and beyond. Individually an info cell may consciously be computed (dream); unconsciously the brain continually computes info cells.
Is it a recording info cell of me, brought back to the brain and processed? Is it an info cell of something else being processed by my brain? Is it both?
Isn't it nice to know that there will always be a part of you way out there!
cbc.ca bruce voigt