Antimatter

…not to be confused with Anti-matter movement: the organization against matter…

Atoms are made up of subatomic particles: the proton, neutron, and the electrons. In the 1930’s physicists discovered an alternate twin particle, antiparticle, to normal particles. The first to be discovered was the positron, antielectron, which has a positive charge. It was similar to the electron, except that it carries an opposite charge

What is antimatter

{…let’s annihilate this anti-matter organization seeking to ban the existence of all forms of matter…}

Antimatter is a composed of antiparticles which have equal masses with normal particles, but opposite electromagnetic properties. Antimatter has completely opposite charges to that of matter. Protons are negativity charge, electrons are positively charged, and neutrons… are, um… well, the same neutral particles.

If antimatter comes in contact with matter, the result is an energy releasing annihilation.

Antimatter and technology

{…help the universe by saying “no” to the anti-matter organization anti-matter policies …}

Antimatter has very promising technological applications such as weaponry, energy, and space travel. This can be possible due to the annihilation reaction between regular matter and antimatter to release a lot of energy.

Military applications

You’ve probably seen antimatter weapons in movies. But the most powerful application of antimatter in the military is…the antimatter bomb. The antimatter bomb is far more efficient than the nuclear bomb which is about 1 percent efficient. In theory an antimatter bomb could convert 100 percent of its mass into energy. This would be extremely destructive.

Energy applications

As mentioned earlier, an an antimatter releases energy when it comes in contact with matter. Methods can be created to make use of that energy to produce heat, light, and electricity with little or no toxic waste. This method of providing energy would be ideal.

Space travel applications

The energy release by matter and antimatter annihilation can be used to propel rockets and spaceships. This he energy in antimatter is about a billion times greater than energy in ordinary rocket fuel. Therefore little amounts of antimatter can move spaceships great distances.

Limitations and problems with antimatter technology

{…hurray, great job guys, we’ve finally stopped that antimatter organization from implementing it plans. And the government plans to shut it down.}

There are reasons we don’t see antimatter spaceships being launched and zipping through space, they are:

(1) COST: Production of antimatter is very expensive. The current rate of antimatter production is between one-billionth to ten-billionths of a gram per year. In 2004 it cost CERN $20 million to produce several trillionths of a gram of antimatter. At this rate producing a single gram of antimatter would cost $100 quadrillion. So it’s safe to say that antimatter is the most precious substance in the world.

(2) HANDLING AND STORAGE: The handling of antimatter causes serious problems, since any contact between matter and antimatter is destructive. Obviously, containing antimatter in an object would be dangerous as it would react with the wall of the container destructively.

(3) FINDING ANTIMATTER: Antimatter has not been found naturally and I doubt that it will ever be found in our solar system. Our universe is mainly matter than antimatter (this has puzzled physicists). Although not found someday we might find it… But!! It would be to dangerous to travel to antimatter locations with matter based spaceships. How we would mine it is a pretty interesting question.

Coming soon, Parallel universes