Device at the International Space Station In the search of antimatter
Technically speaking, antimatter would be the aggregation of antiparticles. Being antiparticles the opposite charge analogous particles, that is, f.i. the positron (a positively charged electron) or the antiproton (a negative proton), which occur in the Universe in a smaller amount compared to the particles, and that when mixed with "normal" matter annihilate each other, producing vast quantities of high-energy photons and other particle-antiparticle pairs (such as the neutrino-antineutrino).’
We all know from our sensorial experience that the matter is everywhere in the known Universe in considerable masses, but the antimatter seems to be less abundant, though both (matter and antimatter) should be symmetric in quantity. Such asymmetry (baryogenesis) has originated one of the big unsolved questions of Physics.
In order to search for the Antimatter of Universe, NASA resumes work to shutter the shuttle program at 2010, with one extra mission: to carry upon the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (7.5 tons) to the International Space Station.
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer lifted to its module base.
AMS was previously canceled by the Bush Administration, following concerns due to the accident of Columbia (2003). The cuts in the budget also had its effect on the settlement of the AMS module. But with the renewed financial support of the Obama Administration to the Development of Science, the project can be carried on.
One of the aims of the AMS is to find those spots of antimatter in the Universe, where it should be more dense. Maybe, if such spots are never found, AMS might give the clues to discover what happened to the lacking antimatter at the moment of birth of the Universe.
Via: Discovery News
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