NASA launched a giant balloon loaded with scientific instruments earlier
this month to study cosmic rays
NASA launched a giant balloon loaded
with scientific instruments earlier this month to study cosmic rays.
Called AESOP, the nearly 1,000 foot
(300 meters) foot balloon was launched from the EsrangeSpaceCenter
in Sweden
on June 2nd and is now over northern Canada.
[The balloon's real time flight can be followed here.]
The purpose of the long duration flight is to study the abundance of
electron anti-particles, called "positrons," in cosmic ray electrons
to determine the extent to which the large scale structure of the sun's
magnetic field is important in the transmission of galactic cosmic rays through
the galaxy.
--Ker Than
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