Page 12 - Cosmos Edition 3
P. 12
ANTIMATTER
“Everything in this universe has its opposite”. Matter is a physical substance that occupies
space and has mass. Matter has three states- Solids, Liquids and Gases. Every single particle in
this universe has an antiparticle that has all the same properties of its respective particle ex-
cept for the charges which are the opposite of each other. So is it possible for matter to have a
negative opponent?
Yes, the answer gives the word Antimatter.
A matter’s fundamental piece is called an atom. Atom has three subatomic particles known as
neutron, proton and electrons. Now, an antimatter possesses the same properties of matter
but just the charges differ. Thus the protons and neutrons present inside the nucleus of an at-
om of a matter become anti-protons (negatively charged) and anti-neutrons in that of an atom
in an antimatter. Whereas the electrons orbiting the nucleus become positrons (positively
charged) in the atoms of antimatters. The neutrons turn to anti-neutrons even though they car-
ry no charge because they have opposite baryon number in which anti-neutrons have -1. This
is because neutrons are composed of quarks and anti-neutrons are composed of anti-quarks.
As we know that negative and positive cancel each other like -2 + 2 = 0, anti-matter also can-
cels if it comes in contact with a matter. Thus, antimatters and matters annihilate each other
for example Anti-hydrogen atom annihilates hydrogen atom.
The energy produced due to the annihilation is most probably in the form of gamma radiation.
So if 1kg of a meteorite made up of antimatter strikes the surface of the earth destroy 1kg of
earth mass but will produce an energy of 1.8 * 10 joules of energy which is enough to melt
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1000000000000kg’s of graphite! As antimatter annihilates matter the energy produced by
them is tracked down by the observatories at earth proving that antimatters do exist but are
rare. No idea why the universe has huge amounts of matter compared to anti-matter but if we
meet up with one, the energy produced will be strong enough to wipe out all the species
known to mankind.
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