Several weeks ago, I wrote about a lively session at the AAAS Meeting about dark matter. At the meeting, Nobel laureate Samuel Ting hinted that he may have further evidence of the mysterious matter that makes up a quarter of the mass of our universe. He said the results would be published in a few weeks, and much to reporters dismay, left it at that.

Today, speaking from CERN, Ting finally announced the results. They will be published on Friday in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Ting spent several years (almost two decades!) convincing NASA and others to establish a detector in space to measure dark matter. Now, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment, installed on the International Space Station in 2011, studies cosmic rays before they have a chance to interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, and the secret to dark matter could lie in these cosmic rays.

Scientists believe that an excess of positrons in the cosmic ray flux could be the result of dark matter particles colliding and annihilating. One of the leading explanations for dark matter, a subset of particles collectively known as “weakly-interacting massive particles” (or “WIMPs”), would create positrons as a by-product of colliding with one another: individual collisions would happen rarely, but scattered throughout the Universe, they would result in a detectable bath of positrons of different energies. And AMS indeed detected an excess of these particles. While this has been measured in the past by other space-based observatories, the data from AMS represents the largest collection of positron particles recorded in space.

“As the most precise measurement of the cosmic ray positron flux to date, these results show clearly the power and capabilities of the AMS detector,” Ting remarked. “Over the coming months, AMS will be able to tell us conclusively whether these positrons are a signal for dark matter, or whether they have some other origin.”

However promising the results, they may not signal dark matter at all. The positrons could originate from pulsars distributed around the galactic plane. Now AMS will further refine the measurement’s precision, and gather and analyze more data. Ting believes there’s no question that in the next year or two, we will understand exactly what these results indicate. It could be dark matter. Stay tuned…

Enter Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans, scientists’ favorite worm. C. elegans has traveled on many spaceflights, making it the perfect study for aging and space travel.

Lifespan and aging rates in animals are influenced by numerous environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen, and food intake. The effect of microgravitational space environments on aging remains poorly understood, in part because scientists must disentangle it from many other influences.

To address the question of spacefaring worms’ longevity, Yoko Honda of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology examined ISS-flown C. elegans and compared them to earth-bound worms.

During the International C. elegans Experimental First project, scientists incubated worms and flew them for two days to the ISS. The worms resided on-board for nine days, and then returned to Earth to be flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. Control animals underwent the same procedures at the same time on the ground.

First off, the team noted that spaceflight suppressed the formation of particular compounds that normally accumulate with increasing age.

Secondly, the team looked at how spaceflight affected specific genes’ expression (not whether the genes smiled or frowned, but how efficiently the genes transfered the information they encode into actual proteins). The space travel downregulated seven of the worms’ genes: these genes encode proteins linked to neuronal or endocrine signaling. Honda and his colleagues observed that the inactivation of each of these genes led to an extension of the worms’ lifespan on the ground. So when the scientists “turned off” the genes that slowed down in space, the worms lived longer.

Space travel leads to longevity? Well, perhaps in worms. Further research is required, but the present study suggests that space-flown worms age more slowly compared with the control group, and hints that spaceflight may extend worm lifespan. Can astronauts hope for similar results? Far too early to tell…

The research appears in the current edition of Scientific Reports.

Image: Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill, Wikipedia

Since November 2, 2000, the International Space Station (ISS) has been a home for astronauts from the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Russia. This orbiting lab also houses many important space experiments, which is why SpaceX—a privately owned rocket company—was hired to deliver supplies to this fundamental sector of our space program.

“The investments made by the United States to stimulate the commercial space industry are paying off,” says Philip McAlister, director for Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters. “SpaceX achieved what until now was only possible by a few governments, and the company did it with relatively modest funding from the government.”

After SpaceX delayed the mission at the last second due to an abnormal pressure in one of the combustion chambers on May 19, the company quickly rescheduled the launch for May 22.

The Dragon cargo capsule launched successfully upon the Falcon 9 rocket, and late on May 23, Dragon flew within 1.5 miles of the International Space Station to test communication via strobe light. The spacecraft then moved 125 miles away from the space station to test its capabilities. It returned around 11:00 p.m. PDT on May 24 to demonstrate its maneuvering capability and begin the rendezvous.

The capture started at 6:56 a.m., when Dragon moved towards the 65-foot box called the “berthing box.” Don Pettit used a robot arm to grapple the capsule, then after bolting Dragon to Harmony (the “utility hub” of the ISS), the berthing process was completed at 9:02 a.m.

This accomplishment heralds a new era in commercial spaceflight, and it also demonstrates how well various teams can work together. The flight was nearly flawless, and the ISS team successfully handled the data they received to complete the mission.

“Today marks another critical step in the future of American spaceflight,” says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Now that a U.S. company has proven its ability to resupply the space station, it opens a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space—and new job creation opportunities right here in the U.S. By handing off space station transportation to the private sector, NASA is freed up to carry out the really hard work of sending astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. The Obama Administration has set us on an ambitious path forward and the NASA and SpaceX teams are proving they are up to the task.”

The mission hasn’t wrapped up just yet—Dragon is scheduled to depart from ISS on May 31, returning with the ISS’s unnecessary hardware and cargo.

The SpaceX mission’s success is paving the way for future private sector rockets.

A complete timeline of the mission can be found here.

Alyssa Keimach is an astronomy and astrophysics student at the University of Michigan and volunteers for the Morrison Planetarium.