The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station: Five years of data taking and lots of questions
Dr. Iris Gebauer (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT))

In five years of data taking on the International Space Station the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) has collected more than 90 billion cosmic ray events. The high acceptance and resolution of AMS-02 provide precision measurements of the fluxes of galactic protons, electrons, positrons, antiprotons and nuclei up to TeV energies.
The matter component of these cosmic rays is believed to primarily originate from supernova explosions within the Milky Way, while the antimatter component is partially produced in secondary cosmic ray interactions during propagation. Other antimatter sources, like pulsars or the annihilation of the elusive dark matter, may contribute.
Precise measurements of the rare antimatter components (positrons and antiprotons) in cosmic rays suggest the presence of a yet unexplained mechanism producing an excess of antiparticles at GeV and TeV energies. Simultaneously, many nuclei spectra exhibit a progressive hardening at high rigidities, which is not expected in the standard paradigm of galactic cosmic rays.
The latest results from AMS-02 will be summarized and the current status of our understanding will be discussed.