Milestone for space-bound magnet

Cosmic rays will fly through the middle of the magnet

A "hugely powerful" magnet built in Oxfordshire has begun the first stage of its journey into space.

The superconducting magnet is being shipped to Europe, where it will form the core of a huge particle detector being built in Geneva.

It was designed and manufactured by Scientific Magnetics Ltd, in Culham.

When the particle detector, called the AMS-02, is complete it will be tested in Holland, before being launched at the Kennedy Space Centre in 2010.

The AMS-02 is a giant particle physics experiment which will be installed on the International Space Station.

It could re-write the Big Bang theory Stephen Harrison Scientific Magnetics Ltd

"The superconducting magnet is the largest, most complicated and ambitious part of the whole experiment," said Stephen Harrison, the managing director of Scientific Magnetics Ltd.

"The magnet is hugely powerful, but does not consume any power which makes it ideal for use in space.

"It will help sift through cosmic rays, searching for anti-matter, dark matter and other unexplained phenomena."

'Origins of life'

Mr Harrison said creating the magnet had been the biggest project the company had ever undertaken.

It will be the first large superconducting magnet to be launched into space.

The magnet was shipped in a cryostat which will cool it to -271C

He said: "The magnet alone cost $20m and it has taken more than 11 years to get to this point.

"Overall the project is expected to cost $1.6bn. It's similar in cost and significance to the Hubble Space Telescope."

"The experiment will try to explain the origins of life, the universe and everything."

"It could confirm some of what we already know and, in principle, it could re-write the Big Bang theory."

The project is funded by more than 50 research institutes across the world.