5/8/2023 0 Comments What is antimatter![]() According to the best models we have of the early universe, the big bang should have produced equal quantities of matter and antimatter. One of the great mysteries surrounding antimatter is why there isn’t more of it around. These particles don’t hang around for long, though, as they annihilate upon contact with their first electron. ![]() Bananas and brazil nuts are also regular emitters. We actually emit positrons ourselves, thanks largely to the radioactive potassium-40 in our bodies. Some antimatter particles are actually fairly common, as positrons are produced in the beta decays of certain radioactive elements. ![]() In all cases, if an antiparticle were to meet its opposite number, then the two would annihilate in a blast of light and energy. Force-transmitting particles, for example, such as photons and the Higgs boson, are often their own antiparticles, while debate rages about whether the same applies to neutrinos and antineutrinos. Some particles have no antimatter equivalent. So whereas an ordinary electron has a mass of 9.1×10^-31kg and a negative electrical charge of -1, its antimatter version – the positron – has the same mass but a positive charge of +1. But many of these particles have an antimatter equivalent: a particle identical in every respect, but with an opposite charge. The world we live in is overwhelmingly made up of particles of matter.
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