Antimatter
hideIn particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.
There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what might be possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis.
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News tagged with antimatter
Large Hadron Collider sends beams in 2 directions
Nov 23, 2009 |
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(AP) -- The world's largest atom smasher made another leap forward Monday by circulating beams of protons in opposite directions at the same time in the $10 billion machine after more than a year of repairs, ...
Grant to Design Neutrino Detector
Oct 14, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A consortium led by UC Davis physics professor Robert Svoboda will design the world's largest neutrino detector under a $4.4 million contract recently awarded by the National Science Foundation.
In Search of Antimatter Galaxies
Aug 17, 2009 |
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NASA's space shuttle program is winding down. With only about half a dozen more flights, shuttle crews will put the finishing touches on the International Space Station (ISS), bringing to an end twelve years ...
Astrophysicists solve mystery in Milky Way galaxy
Jul 09, 2009 |
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A team of astrophysicists has solved a mystery that led some scientists to speculate that the distribution of certain gamma rays in our Milky Way galaxy was evidence of a form of undetectable "dark matter" ...
Physicists Scrutinize Antimatter in Angels & Demons
May 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Could the Vatican really be destroyed by antimatter stolen from a CERN laboratory? The scheme might work in the plot of Angels & Demons, the most recent Hollywood thriller based on a book ...
High-energy Electrons Could Come from Pulsars -- or Dark Matter
May 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Something in our galactic neighborhood seems to be producing large numbers of high-energy electrons, according to new data gathered by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The electrons could ...
Fermi telescope explores high-energy 'space invaders'
May 04, 2009 |
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(Physorg.com) -- Since its launch last June, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a new class of pulsars, probed gamma-ray bursts and watched flaring jets in galaxies billions of light-years ...
Billions of particles of anti-matter created in laboratory
Nov 17, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Take a gold sample the size of the head of a push pin, shoot a laser through it, and suddenly more than 100 billion particles of anti-matter appear.
Searching for primordial antimatter
Oct 30, 2008 |
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Scientists are on the hunt for evidence of antimatter - matter's arch nemesis – left over from the very early Universe. New results using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory ...
