Antimatter Trapped For the First Time

[Ghosthud1]

The ALPHA experiment at CERN has taken an important step forward in developing techniques to understand one of the Universe’s open questions: is there a difference between matter and antimatter? In a paper published in Nature today, the collaboration shows that it has successfully produced and trapped atoms of antihydrogen. This development opens the path to new ways of making detailed measurements of antihydrogen, which will in turn allow scientists to compare matter and antimatter.

Antimatter – or the lack of it – remains one of the biggest mysteries of science. Matter and its counterpart are identical except for opposite charge, and they annihilate when they meet. At the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal amounts. However, we know that our world is made up of matter: antimatter seems to have disappeared. To find out what has happened to it, scientists employ a range of methods to investigate whether a tiny difference in the properties of matter and antimatter could point towards an explanation.

CERN created the first nine atoms of antihydrogen in 1995, and then started to produce atoms in large quantities in 2002, as part of the ATHENA and ATRAP experiments. This is the first time that scientists have been able to trap antihydrogen atoms for a long enough time to study them, keeping them at 9 degrees kelvin (-443.47 degrees Fahrenheit, -264.15 degrees Celsius), suspended in a magnetic field inside this Ghostbusters-style machine.

The other reason why this is an important step is its potential to solve our need for unlimited energy. When antihydrogen touches matter—as shown in the image above—it releases a huge amount of energy. Many scientists speculate that antimatter may be the key to provide unlimited power capable of driving machines that are unthinkable right now. Eventually, it could be the stuff that could power new engines capable of taking us to the stars at near-light speed.

The energy per unit mass (9×1016 J/kg) is about 10 orders of magnitude greater than chemical energy, about 4 orders of magnitude greater than nuclear energy that can be liberated today using nuclear fission, and about 2 orders of magnitude greater than the best possible from fusion.

The reaction of 1 kilogram of antimatter with 1 kilogram of matter would produce 180 petajoules of energy or the rough equivalent of 43 megatons of TNT. For comparison, Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, reacted an estimated yield of 50 megatons, which required the use of hundreds of kilograms of fissile material.

Or maybe we will just manage to destroy the world in one big honkin explosion of strawberry and cherry goo. It can go either way.

But fear not, we are not there yet. At this stage, scientists are still trying to comprehend how antimatter works. This is one more—although very important—step in this quest.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_XbMRRtEJ8[/media]

Its scary science when you have watched angels and demons XD

 

[ionicle]

wow, isnt that what they use to power starships ....in star trek?

 

[thestepster]

yeah love the stuff cern are doing very interesting stuff

 

[Ghosthud1]

It is indeed the theory behind star trek engines XD basically smashing anti matter and matter together cause such energy 1kg of this stuff is around the same explosive power of the tsar bomb set off in russia which was 50 megatons

 

[hmmblah]

The problem with anti-matter right now, and why it will never be used in a weapon, is it takes much more energy to create and store anti-matter, than what you actually get from the anti-matter.

 

[Dewinte]

Imagine if you created a method of creating the antimatter, and reacting it as required producing the energy and capturing it on a controlled scale... then patented it... £££££££££...............

 

[Dewinte]

The problem with anti-matter right now, and why it will never be used in a weapon, is it takes much more energy to create and store anti-matter, than what you actually get from the anti-matter.

With energy production though if you wanted to use it straight away then it removes the issue of storage, and if in time the production of anti-matter became more efficient or a breakthrough in it's production methods were made then it'd be highly possible to use it as a method of electrical power generation... or am I being way too simplistic about this?

I agree about the weapon part which is what you wrote about

because storage... that's a whole other level!! Ofc if you could miniaturize the production process with some crazy breakthrough then you could have the weapon create the antimatter then react...

 

[Ghosthud1]

The problem with anti-matter right now, and why it will never be used in a weapon, is it takes much more energy to create and store anti-matter, than what you actually get from the anti-matter.

Yeah we wont see this stuff been used as any sort of alternate power for a long time now.

I think CERN managed to contain the atom for a fraction of second just long enough to study it!

But knowing CERN if they know they can do it, by all means they will.

 

[Dewinte]

Yeah we wont see this stuff been used as any sort of alternate power for a long time now.

I think CERN managed to contain the atom for a fraction of second just long enough to study it!

But knowing CERN if they know they can do it, by all means they will.

Long time for sure. Only way to reduce that time is to pour resources and funding, schooling and so on towards the goal but even that can only reduce the time it'll take to a point.. it'll still take ages with all that, and that's not even present xD

 

[lappy74]

It is indeed the theory behind star trek engines XD basically smashing anti matter and matter together cause such energy 1kg of this stuff is around the same explosive power of the tsar bomb set off in russia which was 50 megatons

Yeah the Tsar Bomb was immense. I think I could actually see the crater it left on google maps