Photo courtesy Laboratory for Energetic Particle Science at Penn State University ![]() It will take tons of antiprotons to travel to interstellar destinations. All of the antiprotons produced at CERN in one year would be enough to light a 100-watt electric light bulb for three seconds. These high-energy particle accelerators only produce one or two picograms of antiprotons each year. Some of these particles are antiparticles that are separated out by the magnetic field. When an atom is sent through this accelerator, it slams into a target, creating particles. Luckily, there is technology available to create antimatter through the use of high-energy particle colliders, also called "atom smashers." Atom smashers, like CERN, are large tunnels lined with powerful supermagnets that circle around to propel atoms at near-light speeds. If that does exist, it would mean that antimatter exists naturally, and the need to make our own antimatter would be eliminated.įor now, we will have to create our own antimatter. However, scientists discovered a possible deposit of antimatter near the center of the galaxy in 1977. There may be no naturally-existing anti-particles in our universe today. And because there may have been more particles in the universe to start with, those are all that's left. As stated above, the collision of particles and anti-particles destroys both. It is possible that particles outnumbered anti-particles at the time of the Big Bang. ![]() Since antimatter doesn't exist around us, we don't see the light that would result from it colliding with matter. If there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter, we would likely see these reactions around us. So, why haven't we built a matter-antimatter reaction engine? The problem with developing antimatter propulsion is that there is a lack of antimatter existing in the universe. Scientists believe that this energy is more powerful than any that can be generated by other propulsion methods. The explosion that occurs when antimatter and matter interact transfers the entire mass of both objects into energy. Both particles that created the explosion are completely annihilated, leaving behind other subatomic particles. When antimatter comes into contact with normal matter, these equal but opposite particles collide to produce an explosion emitting pure radiation, which travels out of the point of the explosion at the speed of light. As of 1998, CERN researchers were pushing the production of anti-hydrogen atoms to 2,000 per hour. Nine anti-hydrogen atoms were created, each lasting only 40 nanoseconds. Anti-atoms - Pairing together positrons and antiprotons, scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, created the first anti-atom.In 1955, researchers at the Berkeley Bevatron produced an antiproton. Anti-protons - Protons that have a negative instead of the usual positive charge.Discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932, positrons were the first evidence that antimatter existed. Positrons - Electrons with a positive instead of negative charge.In the Pinto, you'll eventually get to the finish line, but it will take 10 times longer than in the Indy car. It's like the difference between driving an Indy race car and a 1971 Ford Pinto. A matter-antimatter engine will take us far beyond our solar system and let us reach nearby stars in a fraction of the time it would take a spacecraft propelled by a liquid-hydrogen engine, like the one used in the space shuttle. ![]() No engine is likely to generate superluminal speeds the laws of physics prevent us from doing that, but we will be able to go many times faster than our current propulsion methods allow. However, scientists are working on developing an interstellar spacecraft engine that is similar to the matter-antimatter engine of the Enterprise. Warp drive is another one of those science fiction technologies, like teleportation and time travel, that have some scientific basis. Enterprise prepared to hurl the spaceship through the cosmos at superluminal speeds. "Engineering, stand by for warp drive." With that command, the "Star Trek" crew of the U.S.S.
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