When the space Shuttle Endeavor blasts off from Earth for its last mission Friday, it will be transporting one of the most important things to ever reach space.
The AMS-02, or the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in full, is a particle detector that will be installed on the International Space Station.
Once installed, the AMS-02 will begin capturing and recording the cosmic rays, such as protons, electrons and atomic nuclei. Before this starts to remind you of the physics class that you hated, the AMS-02 will take these cosmic readings and do some incredible things.
Scientists are particularly excited about the AMS-02 because it will have the ability to detect and identify single parts of dark matter or antimatter. The most exciting part about AMS-02 and its abilities is that scientists have been curious about dark matter and antimatter for a long time.
One of the most interesting things about dark matter and antimatter specifically is the fact it is invisible. If everything around us is made up of matter, then what is made up of antimatter?
According to an article published on computerworld.com, scientists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said, “its most exciting objective is to probe the unknown, because whenever new levels of sensitivities are reached in exploring an uncharted realm, exciting and unimagined discoveries may be expected.”
The mysterious dark matter is considered to make up about 25 percent of the total mass of the universe. By unlocking the mysteries of dark matter, these scientists believe that what could be found may end up providing us with answers about how the universe that we live in was created.
CERN spokesman Guido Tonelli told computerworld.com that “we’ll address soon some of the major puzzles of modern physics, like the origin of mass, the grand unification of forces and the presence of abundant dark matter in the universe.”
Gaining answers like this would serve as a great reminder of why Endeavor’s mission Friday should definitely not be NASA’s last.
