Shkecetaret jane duke u pergatitur te nxjerin raundin e pare te rezultateve nga nje eksperiment ne International Space Station. Detektori i grimcave Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer eshte instaluar ne stacion gjate misionit te anijes se hapesires ne maj 2011. Qe atehere, instrumenti 2 bilion $, nje bashkepunim ndermjet 60 instituteve ne 16 vende, kane ngritur nje mal te dhenash, duke perfshire edhe nje numerim te 7.7 bilion elektrone dhe pozitrone (homologu antimaterie i elektroneve). Ne te pergjithshmen, numri i grimcave i intereson shkencetareve me pak se sa raporti ndermjet te dyjave. Ideja eshte te percaktohet nese ka me shume grimca antimaterie se sa materie, dhe nese eshte keshtu, te percaktohet se saktesisht ne cfare niveli energjie ndodh pabarazia. "Ajo cfare ne po kerkojme ne raportin ndermjet pozitroneve dhe elektroneve eshte nje ngritje dhe me pas nje ulje dramatike. Ky eshte nenshkrimi kyc qe do te vinte nga materia e zeze qe asgjeson kuroren e drites," - tha Michael Turner, drejtues i Kavli Institute per Fiziken Kozmike ne Universitetin e Cikagos.
Has Dark Matter Finally Been Found? Big News Coming Soon
BOSTON -- Big news in the search for dark matter may be coming in about two weeks, the leader of a space-based particle physics experiment said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That's when the first paper of results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle collector mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, will be submitted to a scientific journal, said MIT physicist Samuel Ting, AMS principle investigator. Though Ting was coy about just what, exactly, the experiment has found, he said the results bear on the mystery of dark matter, the invisible stuff thought to outnumber regular matter in the universe by a factor of about six to one. "It will not be a minor paper," Ting said, hinting that the findings were important enough that the scientists rewrote the paper 30 times before they were satisfied with it. Still, he said, it represents a "small step" in figuring out what dark matter is, and perhaps not the final answer. 'We believe we're on the threshold of discovery.'