![]() Of course antimatter is not inherently “worse” than normal matter – we just define it as “anti” because it’s the inverse to the stuff we’re used to. Every element should have an antimatter equivalent, and they should have all the same properties as their regular matter counterparts except for charge. ![]() These antiparticles can also link up to form antiatoms, so for example an antiproton and an antielectron can form an antihydrogen atom. Some particles, such as photons, are actually their own antiparticles. But don’t worry, it won’t get far before it collides with an electron and vanishes again.Īrtificially, antimatter is mostly produced in particle accelerators like CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, but again only in minuscule amounts, and it usually doesn’t last long.Įvery particle has its equivalent antiparticle – for example, there’s the antiproton, the antineutron, and the antielectron (better known as the positron). It’s produced naturally in tiny amounts in cosmic ray interactions, during hurricanes and thunderstorms, and as part of some types of radioactive decay – in fact, anything with potassium-40 in it will spit out the occasional antimatter particle. Lucky for us, antimatter is extremely rare. ![]() But that simple difference has some major implications – if ever a particle and its antiparticle should meet, they will annihilate each other in a burst of energy. So what actually is antimatter? Where is it? Why is it important that we understand it? And why hasn’t it already destroyed the universe?Īs strange as it sounds, antimatter is essentially just like regular matter, except its particles have the opposite charge. But this antimatter is very real, and despite decades of study it remains very mysterious. It sounds like sci-fi: normal matter has an “evil twin” that annihilates as soon as the two come into contact.
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