A cube, 13 feet to a side, lifts off a sheet of Antarctic ice. It’s tethered to a huge weather balloon filled with helium. Inside that cube is a highly advanced particle detector, designed to record the presence of exotic particles (antiparticles, to be precise) that careen toward Earth from deep space.
The balloon carrying the particle detector recently flew into the stratosphere to search for evidence of dark matter.
This project, called the General Antiparticle Spectrometer, has been under development for over 20 years. Its results should give scientists a peek into how dark matter does — or doesn’t — function. It has taken one professor 20 years to reach this point.
Read more at Northeastern Global News
Photo by Florian Gahbauer
