Notice 3: The Antimatter

Up to a total of 38 atoms of antihydrogen, the opposite of normal hydrogen, have been trapped for a split second, that on a scientific time is a long time, at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN, near Geneva). Being so confined, physicists can begin to study in detail their properties and see if we can extract conclusions of what have happened to the antimatter at origin of the universe.

Alpha Experiment, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN, near Geneva), has captured and contained atoms of antihydrogen.

Antimatter is like the matter but the opposite, as his image in a mirror particles with equal but opposite charge. The antiparticle of the electron, negatively charged, the positron is positively charged. Its existence was predicted by the brilliant British physicist Paul Dirac in 1931 and found experimentally some years later. Today antiparticles work is no longer a scientific exoticism and take advantage, for example in medical instruments such as positron emission tomography.

If a hydrogen atom is made of one proton and one electron, the antihydrogen is an antiproton and a positron.


Paula