Scientists are conducting tests in Europe in preparation for the launch of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), the first large acceptance particle detector designed to operate in space. Many people, however, may not know that Taiwanese scientists are part of the project.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) says 15 countries are participating in the AMS experiment, which was designed by an international team of physicists led by US Nobel laureate Sam Ting.
Production of the AMS components was a joint effort, with France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, China, the US and Taiwan making significant contributions, CERN said.
Academia Sinica, the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), National Central University (NCU), National Cheng Kung University, National Chiao Tung University, and the National Space Program Office (NSPO) are part of the Taiwanese effort.
Lin Chih-hsun (林志勳), an associate research scientist from Academia Sinica’s Institute of Physics, said most of the detector’s electronic equipment was manufactured at the CSIST.
Its main computer and trigger system were jointly designed, manufactured and tested by Academia Sinica, NCU, CSIST and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lin said.
The CSIST and NSPO were responsible for thermal modeling and analysis, and the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp produced the AMS ground support equipment and cooling panels.
The main scientific purpose of AMS is to search for dark matter and antimatter.
CERN said the AMS would be transported to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a special US Air Force flight.
Lift-off aboard the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for July, it said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS