this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Huh I didn't know antimatter was a completely confirmed thing.

After making a thin gas of thousands of antihydrogen atoms, researchers pushed it up a 3-metre-tall vertical shaft surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils. These can create a kind of magnetic ‘tin can’ to keep the antimatter from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Next, the researchers let some of the hotter antiatoms escape, so that the gas in the can got colder, down to just 0.5 °C above absolute zero — and the remaining antiatoms were moving slowly.

The researchers then gradually weakened the magnetic fields at the top and bottom of their trap — akin to removing the lid and base of the can — and detected the antiatoms using two sensors as they escaped and annihilated. When opening any gas container, the contents tend to expand in all directions, but in this case the antiatoms’ low velocities meant that gravity had an observable effect: most of them came out of the bottom opening, and only one-quarter out of the top.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You may have heard of a "PET scan" used in medicine. This uses a type of antimatter called a positron.

https://bigthink.com/hard-science/positron-emission-tomography-antimatter-cancer/

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The complexity behind this is fascinating.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Just wait until you find out about MRI :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's pretty awesome too, but they don't need molecules with atoms that were modified using particle colliders just minutes/hours before you need them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Still much more complex than PET conceptually, and much more versatile.

[–] JohnDClay 63 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That might be dark matter you're thinking about

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Not only does it exist, but bananas give off a fair bit of antimatter due to their decaying potassium isotopes.

Allegedly, im not smart enough to verify it

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Would an anti-banana give off normal matter?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think it would antimatter

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Argument anihilated!

[–] 768 14 points 1 year ago

AFAIK, yes, you might wanna look into β+- and β־-decay

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

AFAIK, yes.

There are some very small differences between matter and anti-matter, but I don't think any of them affect radioactivity.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Bananas produce antimatter, but just barely. The main radioactive material in bananas is Potassium-40. A banana is about 0.358% potassium in all. About 0.012% of naturally occurring potassium is the radioactive Potassium-40. Only 0.001% of all radioactive decay events in postassium-40 produce an antiparticle (a positron).

An average banana produces a single positron about every 75 minutes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brb. Making a fruit-based matter-antimatter annihilation power plant.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You kid but as a kid when I learned about potatoes and lemon batteries I was like "SCALE THIS UP NOW!"

...if only...

[–] mindbleach 3 points 1 year ago

That's a lot more often than I expected, thirty seconds ago!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That’s fucking awesome.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

El psy kongroo

[–] ChickenAndRice 4 points 1 year ago

They say if you microwave bananas, you will get green gel bananas

^dont ^actually ^try ^that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

We need a Far Side where ape scientists are colliding two bannanas at high speed

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

Antimatter was first observed physically back in 1932. A positron, more specifically. Its existence has been confirmed, and accepted, for ages, and some of our technology already operates using antimatter to do its tasks.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

anti-matter? ya, we have been observing it for quite a while (testing is difficult for reasons), it naturally accumulates in parts of the Van Allen belt.

Dark matter on the other hand is still completely up for question

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Large Hadron Collider wouldn't work if antimatter wasn't confirmed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because it involves colliding protons and antiprotons.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No, it either does proton-proton collisions or heavy ions, both regular matter. At TeV energies the added energy from anihalating matter with antimatter isn't that much of a contribution anymore that it would justify the added complexity.

Its predecessor collided positrons with electrons though. But the LEP was more for precise refinement of known interactions and not so much about reaching the highest possible energies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, but it doesn't just collide protons and antiprotons, does it?