AntiMatter

Positronium cooling. The AEgIS collaboration at CERN has experimentally demonstrated the laser cooling of positronium using an alexandrite-based laser system. Credit: CERN – Politecnico di MilanoResearchers successfully cooled positronium atoms, significantly impacting antimatter research and enabling new experiments in quantum electrodynamics and the potential for an antimatter Bose-Einstein condensate.The international AEgIS (Antimatter Experiment: gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) collaboration at CERN, in which…

Interstellar travel is only something humanity has achieved in science fiction — like Star Trek's USS Enterprise, which used antimatter engines to travel across star systems.But antimatter isn't just a sci-fi trope. Antimatter really exists. Elon Musk has called antimatter power "the ticket for interstellar journeys," and physicists like Ryan Weed are exploring how to harness it.Antimatter is made up of particles almost exactly like regular matter but with opposite electric charge. That means when antimatter contacts…

The universe shouldn't be here. Everything scientists know about particle physics, summed up in a theory called the Standard Model, suggests that the big bang should have created equal quantities of matter and antimatter. A mirror version of matter, antimatter consists of partner particles for all the regular particles we know of, equal in every way but with opposite charge. When matter and antimatter particles collide, they destroy one another, so the mass created when the universe was born should have been completely…

2023 was a busy year in science. Here are 10 stories worth revisiting as we wind up the year.1. Canadian Jeremy Hansen chosen to fly to the moonA Canadian astronaut was selected as part of the crew for NASA's Artemis II mission to the moon.Jeremy Hansen and three crew mates will fly in an Orion capsule that will orbit the moon and fly farther into deep space than any humans have gone before.Hansen will not land on the moon, but the planned 10-day mission will be the first of a series of missions expected to culminate with…

By U.S. Department of Energy November 24, 2023Antimatter, the mirror image of matter’s subatomic particles, is a fascinating yet elusive element of our universe. Although theories suggest equal amounts of matter and antimatter should exist, the observable universe predominantly contains matter. This discrepancy poses a significant mystery in physics.What Is Antimatter?Antimatter is the twin of almost all the subatomic particles that make up our universe. The matter in our universe comes in many forms—solids, liquids,…

When theoretical physicists like myself say that we’re studying why the universe exists, we sound like philosophers. But new data collected by researchers using Japan’s Subaru telescope has revealed insights into that very question.First Full-Color Images From Webb Space TelescopeThe Big Bang kick-started the universe as we know it 13.8 billion years ago. Many theories in particle physics suggest that for all the matter created at the universe’s conception, an equal amount of antimatter should have been created alongside…

Enad Global 7 has announced that it will be closing down Antimatter Games, the studio behind Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, this summer. The announcement was made today (May 26) with the parent company confirming the closure as part of its ongoing efforts to achieve higher predictability and profitability. It explained that the decision was made “after exploring various strategic options” and the closure will “likely take place during this summer” (via PCGamer). “The Group evaluated various strategic options for AMG, including…

If you somehow haven’t heard of Mickey7 yet, you will soon: Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel will be a 2024 Bong Joon-ho movie (retitled Mickey17) starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. Ashton’s sequel, Antimatter Blues, arrives in stores today, and io9 has the first chapter for you to read (or listen to!) right here.It’s described as the “thrilling follow up to Mickey7 in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation.” Here’s a more detailed synopsis,…

A team of physicists determined that enigmatic ‘antinuclei’ can travel across the universe without being absorbed by the interstellar medium. The finding suggests we may be able to identify antimatter that is produced by dark matter in deep space.The physicists estimated the Milky Way’s so-called transparency to antihelium-3 nuclei—meaning, how permissive the galaxy’s interstellar medium is to antinuclei zipping through space.“Our results show, for the first time on the basis of a direct absorption measurement, that…

Antimatter is matter made up of the antiparticles of the corresponding particles found in “ordinary” matter.Physicists invoke the cosmological collider to demonstrate why matter, not antimatter, dominates the universe.The universe was filled with equal numbers of matter and “antimatter” – particles that are matter counterparts but have opposite charges — early in its existence, shortly after the <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…