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77 institutes from 13 countries and their 280 researchers are working together on a mission. In this mission, two instruments mounted on a high-altitude balloon of NASA will play an important role. The balloon and its cargo are currently in the final stages of manufacturing and assembly. The name of the project is ‘Extreme Space Balloon Observatory’. It is also known as EUSO-SPB2. Under the mission, Messengers will be discovered in outer space, which is a small, high energy particle and collides with the Earth from somewhere in space.

According to reports, after the completion of the work ‘EUSO-SPB2’ will orbit the Southern Hemisphere. It will drift with the air current about 20 miles above Earth to collect data and look for trails left by the two types of particles.

EUSO-SPB2 will carry two different telescopes to detect two types of particles in space. One of these particles is called ‘ultra-high energy cosmic ray’. These are charged particles. In these, a lot of energy is accelerated from somewhere in space and they sometimes collide with the Earth’s atmosphere. It is believed that these are the most energetic particles ever discovered in the universe.

Whereas, the second particle is neutrino. Both the particles are believed to have come from outside our galaxy ie the Milky Way. Possibly from distant galaxies. But so far no one has been able to trace their origin. Scientists are very interested in tracking the origin of these particles. This is expected to reveal their construction. It is also special that these particles interact very little with matter.

EUSO-SPB2 cannot directly detect these particles, but it can look for signs of them in the atmosphere as neutrinos and cosmic rays collide with molecules on the ground and in the atmosphere. Attempts have been made earlier to search for these particles. However, most of the times in those efforts, the atmosphere has been observed from the ground. This time the observation will be done from the bottom side of the atmosphere. The more of the atmosphere we can see, the better, said University of Chicago physicist Rebecca Diesing, because ultra-high-energy cosmic rays are extremely rare. These particles collide only once in 100 years in a square kilometer area of ​​the Earth.

This flying observatory fitted in a high-tech balloon can be launched by next year. At present, its instrument is being prepared in countries all over the world.