Earth and the other planets in our universe are composed of matter. During the Big Bang, matter and its counterpart, antimatter, were created in equal amounts. However, finding antimatter in our current world is extremely challenging, which makes any discovery related to it significant news. Recent research revealed that antimatter, similar to matter, is subject to gravity. This discovery, predicted by Albert Einstein, is crucial for understanding why matter and antimatter did not annihilate each other during the Big Bang, leaving behind only light. Solving this mystery requires uncovering the differences between matter and antimatter. Learn more about this groundbreaking finding on the BBC website.
Scientists have theorized that gravity could be the key to understanding the disparity between matter and antimatter shortly after the Big Bang. However, they still do not know if antimatter falls at the same rate as matter. The study, published in the esteemed journal Nature, was conducted at the renowned CERN laboratory in Switzerland. Over decades of work, scientists at CERN have managed to produce antiprotons and positrons, which are then directed into a large magnet where they combine to form thousands of atoms of antihydrogen—the antimatter counterpart to hydrogen, the simplest atom. The antihydrogen atoms are trapped by the magnetic field, and when the field is deactivated, the atoms fall downwards, defying the expectation that they would fall upwards. Learn more about the research at the CERN website.
Jeffrey Hangst, the spokesperson for the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus collaboration at CERN, explained, “It has taken us 30 years to learn how to make this anti-atom, to hold on to it, and to control it well enough that we could actually drop it in a way that it would be sensitive to the force of gravity.” The goal now is to measure the acceleration of antimatter as precisely as possible. An article in Nature emphasizes that this finding has significant implications for physics, as any difference in the gravitational behavior of matter and antimatter would revolutionize our understanding of the universe. A physics professor at the University of Florida remarked, “It really is a remarkable result.” Read more about the intriguing world of antimatter on Newser.
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