Let it be said, I am a sucker for balloon-borne experiments. There's something beautiful about sailing into the sky without rockets. It probably says something about a balloon-deprived childhood.
An interesting experiment is currently circling the South Pole, operated by a joint Japan-U.S. research team, carrying a superconducting spectrometer looking for antiprotons (or their signature, as they smash into the atmosphere from outer space.)
Launched a few days before Christmas, the 20-day experiment follows several others by the same research group, and is ultimately aimed at better understanding the sources of these exotic particles. It's the latest in a series of flights stretching back over a decade, mostly in northern Canada, studying this issue.
Antiprotons are typically created as the heavy atomic nuclei of cosmic rays collide with interstellar gas. However, researchers think other events may produce them as well, ranging from the evaporation of early-universe black holes to the decay of (as yet speculative) forms of dark matter.
If the team is able to find numbers of antiprotons that deviate from the predicted level produced by cosmic ray collisions, it could help them pinpoint these other events as potential sources.
The balloon and its dangling payload are traveling between 110,000 feet and 120,000 feet. A map depicting the balloon's progress around Antarctica can be found here.
BESS-Polar balloon-borne superconducting spectrometer successfully launched for Antarctic flight[KEK press release]
(Image: The BESS (Balloon-Borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer) as it is readied for takeoff. Source: BESS/KEK)
