Antimatter Responds To Gravity Like Regular Matter

[kamalktk]

Antimatter responds to gravity like Einstein predicted, major CERN experiment confirms​

/ while it was predicted to do so, it had never been proven to do so

https://www.space.com/gravity-affects-matter-antimatter-similarly

-------------------------------------------------
On Wednesday (Sept. 27) morning, an international team of physicists reported a major finding about an elusive form of matter known as antimatter. It appears that antimatter responds to gravity the same way regular matter does.

This result marks the first-ever direct observation of free-falling antimatter, in which atoms are made of antiprotons instead of protons and antielectrons (positrons) instead of electrons. Antiprotons are basically negatively charged protons (protons are positive in normal matter atoms) and positrons are positively charged electrons (electrons are negative in normal matter atoms). Yeah, it's weird.

More specifically to the recent story, the team's feat ultimately proved that atomic antihydrogen in particular — made up of one antiproton in the center with a positively charged positron orbiting around it — is pulled downward due to gravity instead of upward like you might expect with a form of matter that presents as the "opposite" of normal matter, which, as we know, falls downward with gravity as well.

 

[escargot]

Antimatter responds to gravity like Einstein predicted, major CERN experiment confirms​

/ while it was predicted to do so, it had never been proven to do so

https://www.space.com/gravity-affects-matter-antimatter-similarly

-------------------------------------------------
On Wednesday (Sept. 27) morning, an international team of physicists reported a major finding about an elusive form of matter known as antimatter. It appears that antimatter responds to gravity the same way regular matter does.

This result marks the first-ever direct observation of free-falling antimatter, in which atoms are made of antiprotons instead of protons and antielectrons (positrons) instead of electrons. Antiprotons are basically negatively charged protons (protons are positive in normal matter atoms) and positrons are positively charged electrons (electrons are negative in normal matter atoms). Yeah, it's weird.

More specifically to the recent story, the team's feat ultimately proved that atomic antihydrogen in particular — made up of one antiproton in the center with a positively charged positron orbiting around it — is pulled downward due to gravity instead of upward like you might expect with a form of matter that presents as the "opposite" of normal matter, which, as we know, falls downward with gravity as well.

On hearing this news I immediately pestered Escet but couldn't understand his reply.

 

[Xanatic*]

When energy turned to matter after the Big Bang there should have been equal amounts of matter and antimatter. However unless kept apart, those two forms should annihilate each other and turn back into energy.
If antimatter repels rather than attract that might explain why that didn't happen. However that seems not to be the case.

 

[Mythopoeika]

When energy turned to matter after the Big Bang there should have been equal amounts of matter and antimatter. However unless kept apart, those two forms should annihilate each other and turn back into energy.
If antimatter repels rather than attract that might explain why that didn't happen. However that seems not to be the case.

Either there was a lot more matter than antimatter at the Universe's birth, or there's a separate region of untouched space that is completely filled with antimatter. Hope we never find it if it's out there.

 

[pandacracker]

or there's a separate region of untouched space that is completely filled with antimatter.

'Tis the abode of the Old Ones

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

 

[catseye]

Does this mean the end of our dreams of an antimatter drive? Tch. I'll just throw all this stuff in the bin then.

 

[Xanatic*]

No, the idea of an antimatter drive is simply to provide energy by combining matter and antimatter. You do need to find some antimatter first though.

 

[Sollywos]

On hearing this news I immediately pestered Escet but couldn't understand his reply.

When I read the OP I thought 'I bet that escargot of ours understands , she'll be in the know' and felt a bit inadequate/thick.
That I was wrong has reassured me greatly

 

[escargot]

When I read the OP I thought 'I bet that escargot of ours understands , she'll be in the know' and felt a bit inadequate/thick.
That I was wrong has reassured me greatly

Heh, it's our own Snailet of Physics who has the answers.

 

[Peripart]

Either there was a lot more matter than antimatter at the Universe's birth, or there's a separate region of untouched space that is completely filled with antimatter. Hope we never find it if it's out there.

Maybe the whole reason that we're here to discuss it is that we happen to be in a region of the universe where there was more "normal" than anti-matter, with enough left over to make us after the annihilation.

 

[Tunn11]

But if anti matter and matter attract each other and anihilate each other, and equal amounts of both were created in the big bang - shouldn't the big bang have been followed by little bang and a lot of energy?

Assuming that energy is all that is created?

Where is dark matter in all this?

 

[Xanatic*]

Tunn11: Indeed, that is a problem with the Big Bang Theory. One thing they are doing at CERN is seeing if there might be an imbalance in the natural laws, so that more matter will have been created back then. No luck so far.

 

[Sollywos]

Heh, it's our own Snailet of Physics who has the answers.

Ah yes but I'd assumed young snail had got their brains from you!

I'm interested in all this stuff. a good friend of mine (sadly no longer with us) was a physics lecturer and really enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge. When I asked for a run down on 'theoretical physics for dummies' he looked off into the distance while he gave it some serious consideration! I thought I was on the verge of enlightenment of sorts but eventually he turned and said 'No I don't understand it myself I haven't got the maths and besides there are very few physicist who do have a handle on it all'! To be fair his speciality was ionospheric physics. lol

 

[Mythopoeika]

Ah yes but I'd assumed young snail had got their brains from you!

I'm interested in all this stuff. a good friend of mine (sadly no longer with us) was a physics lecturer and really enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge. When I asked for a run down on 'theoretical physics for dummies' he looked off into the distance while he gave it some serious consideration! I thought I was on the verge of enlightenment of sorts but eventually he turned and said 'No I don't understand it myself I haven't got the maths and besides there are very few physicist who do have a handle on it all'! To be fair his speciality was ionospheric physics. lol

He was an honest man.