scientist learned something crazy about antimatter this good morning : it turns out , as far as we can recite , it wait like an exact mirror image of regular matter .
But okay , what does that even mean ?
Physics theory enounce that every particle has an antiparticle , so for each negatively - charge negatron there ’s a positively charge antielectron , and for each positively - charged proton there ’s a negatively charge antiproton . If an antiparticle meets its anti - partner , the two particle annihilate each other in a burst of energy .
antiparticle definitely survive . Certain atoms spit out positron during the instinctive process of radioactive decay , and the Earth often gets smacked by antiparticles from outside the solar system the frame of cosmic ray .
The Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus , orALPHAexperiment at CERN ( the laboratory with the 17 - nautical mile - unit of ammunition Large Hadron Collider in Geneva , Switzerland ) makes and bewitch antihydrogen . Antihydrogen is basically the next level of antimatter , a positron orbit an antiproton , the same way an negatron orbits a proton in regular hydrogen . The ALPHA kinsfolk captured 14 or so antihydrogen atoms per trial , and blast them with a optical maser . The antihydrogen molecule take up the optical maser Inner Light , then allow off a specific colorful photon — one of the same particles of light that regular hydrogen atoms would have spit out .
The results , which are publish today in the daybook Nature , represent the very first time physicists have measured a light spectrum for antihydrogen .
concord to Tim Tharp , an Assistant Research Professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin who form on ALPHA , the determination is meaning . “ It ’s long been thought that antimatter is an exact reflexion of topic , and we are gather grounds to show that is indeed true , ” he order Gizmodo .
Hydrogen still has a whole spectrum of colors that ALPHA scientists would want to compare with anti - hydrogen , read Tharp . But if issue and antimatter really end up wait like exact mirror figure of speech , it would add to one of the population ’s big mysteries . There ’s a lot more regular thing than antimatter , and folks are trying to interpret why . ( This would be easier to explicate if matter and antimatter were less similar . )
If you ’re still worried about the whole matter - annihilates - antimatter thing , do n’t scratch . “ The amount of antimatter involve in this experiment and create by the history of humans is such a minuscule amount that it poses no scourge to anyone , ” Tharp say . So , you ca n’t make it into a bomb calorimeter or a fuel or anything like that .
[ Nature ]
CERNParticle physicsPhysicsScience
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