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BESS is a particle physics experiment carried by a balloon. ''BESS'' stands for Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer. BESS is a series of experiments that started in 1993, and a later incarnation, BESS-Polar, circled the
BESS webpage
on the NASA website High energy particle telescopes Cosmic-ray experiments Balloon-borne experiments Astronomical experiments in the Antarctic {{Astrophysics-stub
BESS is a particle physics experiment carried by a balloon. ''BESS'' stands for Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer. BESS is a series of experiments that started in 1993, and a later incarnation, BESS-Polar, circled the Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
from December 13 to December 21, 2004, for a total of 8 days 17 hours and 2 minutes. This joint Japanese and American project is supported by the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physic ...
(LHEA) at NASA's GSFC and the KEK.
Overview
The mission of this experiment is to detect antiparticles in thecosmic radiation
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
at high altitudes. It is therefore designed to be carried aloft by balloon. The central detection device is a magnetic spectrometer
A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...
, that is used to identify all electrically charged particles crossing its main detection aperture. Mission members are working on improving the sensitivity and precision of this system with each new launch.
Scientific goals
Theories of the beginning of the Universe are based on the currently-known laws of particle physics, where matter is created from energy in such a way that equal amounts of particles and antiparticles are produced. If this is so, then an amount of antimatter equal to the amount of currently visible matter must exist—though there is an equal possibility the bulk of the antimatter may have been annihilated due to the mechanism of CP violation. The aim of BESS therefore is to quantify the amount of antiparticles in the local cosmos and so help to decide between these alternatives. Up to this point, only antiprotons have been detected, which can be produced via collisions of the cosmic radiation with atoms in the thin atmosphere above the balloon. Therefore, two strategies are employed to obtain the value for theflux
Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
of antiparticles from outer space:
* Measure the properties of the antiproton flux precisely and look for deviations from the expected behavior of antiprotons created in the atmosphere.
* Look for larger antinuclei, for instance antihelium, that cannot be produced by collisions.
Additionally, the basic properties of standard particle fluxes will be measured with high precision.
External links
BESS webpage
on the NASA website High energy particle telescopes Cosmic-ray experiments Balloon-borne experiments Astronomical experiments in the Antarctic {{Astrophysics-stub