Physicists find antimatter in heavens above South Atlantic

A team of over 60 physicists from Italy, Germany, Sweden and Russia discovered sub-atomic antimatter trapped in a gravitational field anomaly above the Earth. Using a cosmic ray space probe that cost only a fraction of the ₤4.4 billion atom smasher in Geneva, Switzerland built to produce antimatter, they found 28 antiprotons. The probe, named PAMELA, (Payload for Anti Matter Exploration and Light Nuclei Astrophysics) was launched in June 2006 from Kazakstan and thrust into low-Earth orbit, from where it has been scanning the planet’s magnetic field. The physics experiment in the sky cost only 25 million euros or $32 million to launch back then. It was expected to stay aloft for only three years, but is still in orbit after over five years. Attached to Russia’s Resurs-DK1 satellite, PAMELA is circling around the Earth along a sun-synchronous, elliptical orbit at an altitude ranging between 350 and 610 kilometers and inclination of 70 degrees. PAMELA is “a powerful particle identifier using a permanent magnet spectrometer with a variety of specialized detectors," the project’s physicists said on their website. The PAMELA scientists add that their probe “is measuring with unprecedented precision and sensitivity the abundance and energy spectra of cosmic rays, electrons, positrons, antiprotons and light nuclei." Particle flux The 28 antiprotons were found in the South Atlantic Anomaly, which, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “is a region of very dense radiation above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil." “The particle flux is so high in this region that often the detectors on our satellites must be shut off (or at least placed in a "safe" mode) to protect them from the radiation," NASA said. PAMELA physicists revealed the progress of their experiment through a series of updates since 2006. The latest details on the discovery of antiprotons were in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters of the American Astronomical Society. The PAMELA team also presented the results of their five-year experiment at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics 2011 in Grenoble, France last month. Researchers worldwide have been exploring the use of antimatter for military weapons, power source for spacecraft engines, and medical radiation diagnosis and therapy. According to scientists at the the European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known by its French acronym, CERN) in Geneva, the Antiproton Cell Experiment (ACE) has been in progress since 2003 and “is the first investigation of the biological effects of antiprotons." “The results show that antiprotons are four times more effective than protons in damaging the cells of the targeted area. This is a promising result, which shows that antimatter could be used to treat cancerous tumors," CERN said. — ERL/VS, GMA News