{"id":227105,"date":"2025-12-16T15:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=227105"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:18:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:18:52","slug":"gaps-experiment-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/12\/16\/gaps-experiment-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Football-field-sized balloon takes flight over Antarctica in quest for dark matter answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_227109\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-227109\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-screenshot.jpg\" alt=\"large balloon in the air\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-227109\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-screenshot.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-screenshot-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-screenshot-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-227109\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A snapshot of the <abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> experiment launch on December 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A groundbreaking scientific experiment aimed at detecting dark matter in space launched from Antarctica on December 15, with significant contributions from University of <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_227111\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-227111\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"photo of a large machine next to a large balloon\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-227111\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-227111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The <abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> experiment prepares to launch from Antarctica. (Photo credit: <abbr>NASA<\/abbr>\/Andy Hamilton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The General AntiParticle Spectrometer (<abbr>GAPS<\/abbr>) experiment is suspended from a football-field-sized balloon approximately 24 miles above Antarctica to search for rare cosmic antimatter that could help unlock the mysteries of dark matter, one of physics&#8217; most perplexing phenomena.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csbf.nasa.gov\/map\/balloon6\/flight759N.htm\">Track the balloon in real time<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dark matter makes up about 85&#37; of all the mass in our universe, yet we can\u2019t see it or directly detect it&#8212;we only know it exists because of how it affects things around it through gravity. Understanding dark matter would help us grasp what most of the universe is actually made of and potentially reveal fundamental new physics that could revolutionize our understanding of how everything works.<\/p>\n<h2>International partners work on mystery<\/h2>\n<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa received $1.4 million, part of a larger <abbr title=\"National Aeronautics and Space Administration\">NASA<\/abbr> grant, in support of the project, and has been playing a leading role in developing the experiment. Columbia is the lead institution on the <abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> project. Collaborators include the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa, <abbr>UCLA<\/abbr>, <abbr>UC<\/abbr> Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, Northeastern University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and international collaborators from Japan, Italy and China.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_227113\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-227113\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-columbia-scientific-balloon-facility-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"people standing in front of a large machine\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-227113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-columbia-scientific-balloon-facility-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-columbia-scientific-balloon-facility-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-columbia-scientific-balloon-facility.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-227113\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Achim Stoessl, Grace Tytus and Philip von Doetinchem during the integration at the <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in summer 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;This experiment puts <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at the forefront of one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics,&rdquo; said Philip von Doetinchem, project lead and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phys.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa Department of Physics and Astronomy<\/a> professor. &ldquo;Our students and researchers at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa are helping lead a quest to understand what makes up a large fraction of our universe, showing that groundbreaking science is happening right here in our islands.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr>UH<\/abbr> <abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> flight operations team is composed of Research Corporation of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> researcher Achim Stoessl, graduate student Grace Tytus and Doetinchem. In addition, Cory Gerrity was instrumental for on-campus detector development tasks during the pandemic, which was also supported by undergraduate student Hershel Weiner.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_227115\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-227115\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-antarctica-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"people standing on ice in Antarctica\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-227115\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-antarctica-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-antarctica-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-antarctica.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-227115\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Achim Stoessl and Philip von Doetinchem for the 2024 <abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> campaign in Antarctica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The experiment seeks to detect antiprotons and antideuterons (antimatter particles that are used in research to study dark matter and other phenomena), which scientists believe could provide crucial evidence about the nature of dark matter. While researchers have observed dark matter\u2019s gravitational effects, its fundamental properties remain unknown.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>GAPS<\/abbr> utilizes <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> balloon facilities similar to previous Antarctic experiments, including one that recently challenged standard physics models. The project builds on years of preparation, including extensive detector calibration work at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa and integration testing at multiple <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Primary funding is from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (<abbr>NASA<\/abbr>), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (<abbr>JAXA<\/abbr>), the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (<abbr>INFN<\/abbr>), and the Italian Space Agency (<abbr>ASI<\/abbr>), with substantial funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the National Science Foundation (<abbr>NSF<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/12\/10\/antarctica-physics-discovery\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> professor\u2019s Antarctica discovery may herald new model of physics<\/a>, December 10, 2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Department of Physics and Astronomy is housed in <a href=\"https:\/\/natsci.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa\u2019s College of Natural Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The experiment is suspended from a football-field-sized balloon approximately 24 miles above Antarctica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":227109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[308,1467,1363,568,124,545,9],"class_list":["post-227105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-natural-science","tag-physics","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manoa-physics-gaps-experiment-launch-screenshot.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227479,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227105\/revisions\/227479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}