Antimatter and dark matter are new probe's prey

"A cosmic ray detector that will attempt to unlock the secrets of both antimatter and dark matter launched on Thursday. Called PAMELA, the experiment is set to spend at least three years in orbit – providing far longer coverage than the few days of data collected by previous space-based detectors.

Cosmic rays are charged particles that mostly originate in supernova explosions within our galaxy. Studying the properties of individual cosmic rays – such as their charge and atomic number – must be done in space.

PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) is a collaboration between Russia, Italy, Germany and Sweden. The detector should stay in orbit for at least three years.

"We can recognise the particles' charge, momentum, energy and everything," says team member Piergiorgio Picozza of the University of Rome in Italy. "It is the best detector ever constructed and we will use it for a long period."

The 470-kilogram experiment forms part of an Earth-observing satellite called Resurs-DK1 that launched successfully into orbit from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Reversed charges

PAMELA will be able to detect cosmic rays from ordinary sources, such as supernovae, and possibly exotic sources – such as stars made of antimatter. Previous cosmic ray detectors sensitive to antimatter have flown on high-altitude balloons or on the US space shuttle, but they have taken data for no more than a week or so.

Antimatter has the same mass as normal matter but the opposite charge, so an anti-proton carries a negative charge and a positron – the antimatter counterpart of an electron – a positive charge. When in contact, normal matter and antimatter annihilate each other, producing radiation.

The universe is thought to have contained equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the big bang, but today, physicists detect mostly matter. Some theorists believe this is because some process created slightly more matter than antimatter a fraction of a second after the big bang and that the existing antimatter was destroyed – along with an equal amount of normal matter – shortly thereafter. That would mean the universe we know today is made up of the slight excess of normal matter that survived the annihilation."

Dark matter has been driving physicists crazy for decades, and one of two things is clear: Either dark matter and dark energy exists, or Newton was so very wrong that it's back to the drawing board. Our way is to send probes into space, and the Brits, for example...who are as fascinated as anyone but poor...build underground detection stations to try and find dark energy as it cascades by, into, and past us each and every moment in time. Problem is, it is so very alien that normal methods of detection don't work, but scientific efforts such as the UK labs hoping that some of the stuff will agglomerate and become detectable are about as likely to bear fruit as the recovery of an old Einstein document whereby he actually did manage to count how many angels were dancing on his pins.

The math says it HAS to be there. And once it is found, analyzed and understood, we're in for the rides of our lives.