A center will be established in Taiwan to monitor the findings of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, an instrument recently placed on the International Space Station, National Science Council Minister Lee Lou-chuang said Aug. 8.
“We are most happy to be a part of this international project,” Lee said. “It will help boost Taiwan’s research capabilities in particle physics and space technology.”
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, also known as AMS-O2, is a particle physics detector designed to operate as an external module on the ISS.
The AMS-O2 project has been led by Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate in physics who spent his formative years in Taiwan.
“It would be appropriate for Taiwan to operate a ground-based monitor center for AMS-02, as electronic systems used in the program have been made and tested in Taiwan,” Ting said.
He added that Taiwanese scientists Lee Shih-chang, of Academia Sinica, and Jinchi Hao, of the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, played an integral role in the project by devising an electronic data processing system 10 times faster than the ones used in typical spaceflight.
Launched into space May 18 by the space shuttle Endeavor, AMS-02 searches for antimatter and dark matter while performing measurements of cosmic ray composition and flux to better understand the origins of the universe.
Under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy, the AMS-02 took 16 years to construct and involved the work of 600 scientists with 56 institutions from 16 countries.
Besides Taiwan, the only other AMS-02 monitor center in the world is at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, according to Ting. (HZW)