Hum Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Scientists working on the big bang machine in Geneva have done the seemingly impossible: create, capture and release antimatter. The development could help researchers devise laboratory experiments to learn more about this strange substance, which mostly disappeared from the universe shortly after the Big Bang around 14 billion years ago. Trapping any form of antimatter is difficult, because as soon as it meets normal matter -- the stuff Earth and everything on it is made out of -- the two annihilate each other in powerful explosions. In a new study, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva were able to create 38 antihydrogen atoms and preserve each for more than one-tenth of a second. The project was part of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) experiment, an international collaboration that includes physicists from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The antihydrogen atoms are composed of a positron (an antimatter electron) orbiting an antiproton nucleus. "We are getting close to the point at which we can do some classes of experiments on the properties of antihydrogen," said Joel Fajans, a University of California, Berkeley professor of physics, and LBNL faculty scientist. "Since no one has been able to make these types of measurements on antimatter atoms at all, it's a good start." Antimatter, first predicted by physicist Paul Dirac in 1931, has the opposite charge of normal matter and annihilates completely in a flash of energy upon interaction with normal matter. Antimatter is produced during high-energy particle interactions on Earth and in some decays of radioactive elements. The team's results will be published online Nov. 17 in the journal Nature. more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solid Knight Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Awesome. Let's make antimatter cannons! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Antimatter has always been re-creatable, just that the cost for doing so was expensive and little could be produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zain Adeel Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 antimatter has also been captured before... but for so little time that it wasnt considered capturing. i am waiting what measurements they get from it to compare it to its anti hydrogen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted November 19, 2010 Member Share Posted November 19, 2010 When they finally capture enough to fill a small container and are able to show the entire world, that will be something. This is a good start, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hammond Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 Sweet, wheres my photon torpedo and/or warp core. When they finally capture enough to fill a small container and are able to show the entire world, that will be something. This is a good start, though. How are they going to capture enough to fill a small container when any container is going to be made out of matter there is no way of storing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisp Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 What does it look like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuudJacobs.NET Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 Sweet, wheres my photon torpedo and/or warp core. How are they going to capture enough to fill a small container when any container is going to be made out of matter there is no way of storing it. With the new secret anti-anti-matter from the CIA :shiftyninja: What does it look like? They 'captured' it means they took a picture of a black hole :rofl: (porn 'neone?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellacool Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 What does it look like? Gran Tourismo 5 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farstrider Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 When they finally capture enough to fill a small container and are able to show the entire world, that will be something. This is a good start, though. Seriously, what on earth are you talking about?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Derf Veteran Posted November 19, 2010 Veteran Share Posted November 19, 2010 How are they going to capture enough to fill a small container when any container is going to be made out of matter there is no way of storing it. Easy, store it in a container made out of anti-matter. Duh. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 That's awesome that they are finally able to trap antimatter. I've done very small scale experiments with antimatter in a quantum physics class. The simplest way is to measure the amount of decay that occurs in a radioactive material as the positrons annihilate the electrons. A lot of people still honestly think the antimatter thing is made up, but it's actually a pretty basic concept and not hard to prove. The hard part is trapping the antimatter for observation which they've finally done. Big day in science! The coming weeks should be very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted November 19, 2010 Member Share Posted November 19, 2010 How are they going to capture enough to fill a small container when any container is going to be made out of matter there is no way of storing it. Suspended in some sort of void energy field, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zain Adeel Posted November 19, 2010 Share Posted November 19, 2010 they cant store it with magnetism. The anti protons can be.. but as soon as it becomes an ATOM of anti hydrogen It losses the effect and crashes out and annihilates. They have just slowed it down enough so they can maybe take measurements before it moves enough to touch matter. I hope they can. I get so bored when there is no new physics to read about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted November 20, 2010 Author Share Posted November 20, 2010 I store my antimatter in a ziploc bag. :laugh: Stays fresh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyDX Posted November 20, 2010 Share Posted November 20, 2010 Sweet, wheres my photon torpedo and/or warp core. +1 :shiftyninja: Nice science advances little by little^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quattrone Posted November 20, 2010 Share Posted November 20, 2010 Another effort to help one day destroy the planet with one of these little scientist "exercises". Trust me, these people one day will make a terrible mistake that we are going to pay with blood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*RedBull* Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 pics or it didn't happen :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 i dunno, i've heard that lasers can be used to trap atoms , maybe it also works on anti-atoms? so you could hold it with a beam of light and it doesnt touch anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spenser.d Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 Angels and Demons anyone? :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 HOLY ****. FINALLY! This is brilliant news!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 Could there be a day we make Earth a black hole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewJW Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 But they have not yet, found a way to ensure we have enough cowbell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey B. Veteran Posted November 21, 2010 Veteran Share Posted November 21, 2010 Now if only they could manage to create it easily and then use the annihilation as a form of energy capture then use it to power the earth then we would be getting somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihilus Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 Sweet, wheres my photon torpedo and/or warp core. How are they going to capture enough to fill a small container when any container is going to be made out of matter there is no way of storing it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter#Preservation Another effort to help one day destroy the planet with one of these little scientist "exercises". Trust me, these people one day will make a terrible mistake that we are going to pay with blood. DAMN THEM AND THEIR EIGHTEEN ATOMS TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL. That much power, if it falls into the wrong hands, could... not even light a match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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