By Clara Moskowitz
Published February 18, 2013
the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters. “False-colored” maps showing the concentration of starlight, hot gas, and dark matter in the cluster are superimposted on a natural-color image of the galaxies. (NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee, and A. Mahdavi)
The powerful Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) is visible at center left. The blackness of space and Earth’s horizon provide the backdrop for the scene, on May 20, 2011 (Flight Day 5 of the STS-134 shuttle mission). (NASA)BOSTON – Big news in the search for dark matter may be coming in about two weeks, the leader of a space-based particle physics experiment said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
That’s when the first paper of results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle collector mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, will be submitted to a scientific journal, said MIT physicist Samuel Ting, AMS principle investigator.
