Antimatter

What is Antimatter?  You cannot define antimatter without the speaking of matter.  Antimatter is equal and opposite to matter.  Since the universe is composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons, physicists think antimatter is composed of anti-electrons, called positrons, antiprotons, and antineutrons. Watch Movie

Opposite Electric Charge?  These positrons, and antiprotons have an opposite electric charge compared to the normal electrons and protons.  Their quantum numbers – positron(+1) and antiproton(-1)

Annihilation!  If antimatter and matter were to collide, the quantum numbers would add to zero. The matter and antimatter would annihilate.

Where is all the Antimatter?  If matter and antimatter are equal and opposite, then why is our universe composed mainly of matter?  If antimatter does exist in large amounts we would know about the large amount of energy being created when they annihilate.

It Exists!  Antimatter does exist in our environment.  Radiation and fusion processes in the sun produce positrons.  The antimatter particles don’t last long at all.  As soon as a positron meets an electron, they annihilate.

Trapped Antimatter?  Antimatter can be trapped and even created in particle accelerator labs.  In Europe, CERN, a particle accelerator lab trapped and stored antimatter for weeks at a time.

It Costs Too Much!  Antimatter costs an outrageous amount to create.  To create one milligram of antimatter, it costs an estimated one hundred billion dollars.

Technology  With today’s technology, antimatter is being considered for medical, and rocket propulsion purposes.

Antimatter Propelled Spaceship  NASA is exploring ways to use antimatter to propel future spacecraft. A Penn State artist drew this design for an antimatter propelled spaceship.

High Energy Antimatter Telescope  HEAT is another use for antimatter. This project is a NASA program that uses a high- altitude balloon-borne experiment to study antimatter.  The telescope is configured to detect high- energy primary electrons and their opposites, the positrons.

Medical Uses  Antimatter is currently being used for medical purposes also.  The PET, or Positron Emissions Tomography, helps to identify different diseases by the use of antimatter.

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer  This is the new Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to be installed on the International Space Station in 2002 or  This AMS is designed to look for heavy antimatter -- anti- helium nuclei or anti- carbon's, that may come enter our solar system from far away antimatter galaxies.

This presentation brought to you by: Jim Cooper