Some of you may have heard of the "missing antimatter problem" and in this post, I want to go into detail on what it is and what it means.
Starting off, currently there is way more matter than antimatter. Most things ranging from our books to large stellar bodies all consist of matter while there is very less antimatter. However, the big bang should have released an equal amount of matter and antimatter. Hence scientists are trying to find out the cause of this disparity.
To give a brief overview of what antimatter is, antimatter particles share the same mass as matter particles however they have opposite charges ie. a positive positron (antielectron) is simply the opposite of a negatively charged electron. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they both immediately annihilate and release energy usually in the form of gamma rays
Scientists recently were able to create and analyze an antihydrogen to a significant degree of precision and what's truly fascinating is the lack of difference between the two ie. both the hydrogen atom and the antihydrogen atom had no significant differences.
Currently, there is no explanation for this disparity however one theory has gained some traction. Due to the near infinite volume of the universe, we barely know anything about it. Hence it's not a stretch to say just like matter has formed galaxies, there also might be antimatter galaxies somewhere far in the universe. This is only speculation though as there is no real proof or alternatives.
I'll make sure to keep updating if something interesting is found.
Until then,
Adieu
Starting off, currently there is way more matter than antimatter. Most things ranging from our books to large stellar bodies all consist of matter while there is very less antimatter. However, the big bang should have released an equal amount of matter and antimatter. Hence scientists are trying to find out the cause of this disparity.
To give a brief overview of what antimatter is, antimatter particles share the same mass as matter particles however they have opposite charges ie. a positive positron (antielectron) is simply the opposite of a negatively charged electron. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they both immediately annihilate and release energy usually in the form of gamma rays
Scientists recently were able to create and analyze an antihydrogen to a significant degree of precision and what's truly fascinating is the lack of difference between the two ie. both the hydrogen atom and the antihydrogen atom had no significant differences.
Currently, there is no explanation for this disparity however one theory has gained some traction. Due to the near infinite volume of the universe, we barely know anything about it. Hence it's not a stretch to say just like matter has formed galaxies, there also might be antimatter galaxies somewhere far in the universe. This is only speculation though as there is no real proof or alternatives.
I'll make sure to keep updating if something interesting is found.
Until then,
Adieu
No comments:
Post a Comment