Antimatter Discovered Close to Earth

Get our top stories

follow io9.com

Antimatter Discovered Close to Earth

coolantimatter.jpg When electrons and positrons collide, you've got antimatter. Previously, astrophysicists believed that this particle slam-dance could only happen in the hot, energetic heart of a galaxy. But now a new article in the latest issue of Nature reveals that antimatter is being brewed up everywhere around us — at least, everywhere with a binary star system with a black hole, or a neutron star. That means antimatter is raining down on Earth from our own little volume of space, and future antimatter miners won't have to travel to the center of the galaxy to get this potential form of fuel. [Nature]

Contact Annalee Newitz:
Discussion Threads
Follow awesome astrophysics on io9
We Come from the Future
More Stories…