PAMELA and electrons

The 15th of June 2006, the PAMELA satellite-borne experiment was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome and it has been collecting data since July 2006. The apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a silicon-microstrip magnetic spectrometer, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail counter scintillator and a neutron detector. The combination of these devices allows precision studies of the charged cosmic radiation to be conducted over a wide energy range (100 MeV-100's GeV) with high statistics. The measurement of the positron to electron fraction and of the electron energy spectrum in order to search for exotic sources, such as dark matter particle annihilations, are within the PAMELA primary scientific goal.