117 Billion Particles and Counting

Last week, International Space Station crew members changed out a laptop battery for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 (AMS-02). The AMS-02 project is an international collaboration searching for evidence of dark matter and primordial antimatter to better understand the origin and composition of our universe.

AMS-02 is the most sensitive particle detector to ever operate in space. It uses a large magnet and six particle detectors onboard the ISSInternational Space Station National Lab to measure cosmic rays (high-energy particles) passing through our solar system. AMS-02 allows researchers on Earth to measure the mass, momentum, speed, and charge of particles that pass through its detectors. AMS-02 was launched to the ISS on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 2011 and has measured more than 117 billion particles to date!

Learn more about AMS-02 and other ISS National Lab projects looking outward into space in the Upward feature, “On the Frontier of Space: Looking Outward to Better Understand the Universe Around Us.”