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Matter vs antimatter12/25/2023 One theory suggests that more matter than antimatter was created in the beginning of the universe, so that even after mutual annihilation, there was enough matter left to form stars, galaxies and, eventually, everything on Earth. Why matter came to dominate over antimatter is a major mystery. So if antimatter and matter were created in equal amounts and they behave identically, all the matter and antimatter created at the beginning of time should have annihilated on contact, leaving nothing behind. Scientists have measured the properties of particles and antiparticles with extremely high precision and found that both behave identically. As the universe cooled and expanded, particles of both matter and antimatter were produced. In the first moments after the Big Bang, only energy existed. It loosely collects around galaxies, or, perhaps more accurately, galaxies collect inside large pockets of dark matter.Antimatter is also at the heart of a mystery about why the universe exists at all. Regular matter can bind together gravitationally, that's why it forms into things like stars, planets, comets, asteroids, etc. We don't really know what it is, but it's a different kind of matter, it's transparent and it's non binding but it has mass. So, because matter and anti matter tend to evaporate each other, there's really no primordial anti-matter left in the universe, cause there was slightly more matter.īut, other than the explosive interaction, Antimatter is almost exactly the same as matter, You could, in theory build a star, a planet, trees and life out of anti-matter.ĭark Matter is a lot more different. Those reactions are more complicated, but the gist is the same. The Proton/anti Proton or Neutron/anti Neutron or Proton/antineutron or Neutron/antiProton (they interact because they have some quarks/anti-quarks in common). It just happens to explode violently when it touches regular matter - like a positron (Positive Electron) and an electron (negative) will touch and evaporate into a pair of gamma rays. Due to dark matter, galaxies are quite massive, and they rotate almost as solid objects - the outer parts rotate approximately as fast as the central parts.Įstimates vary, but it seems like there's something like 5x to 6x more dark matter out there compared to regular matter.Ī pretty good site for quick explanations is the Particle AdventureĪnti Matter is really quite simple and very similar to regular matter. Without dark matter, galaxies would be much less massive, and the outer parts would rotate much more slowly compared to the center. The shape of galaxies is a proof of the existence of dark matter, and is a result of the interaction between matter and dark matter. Bottom line, dark matter interacts pretty much only via gravity. Instead, it probably exists in a diffuse form. It doesn't seem to interact much with itself either, so for this reason dark matter cannot form "clumps" such as planets or stars. Dark matter also does not interact with light, so you can't see it. Right now dark matter could be passing through you and you wouldn't notice. Hence the name "dark" (as in invisible) matter.ĭark matter doesn't seem to interact much with regular matter, except gravitationally. We just know that galaxies are rotating in such a way that indicates there's a lot more mass out there, but it is mass that we cannot see and cannot be accounted for in the usual ways. It's not even sure it's "matter" in a conventional sense, or related to it in any way. Scientists agree that the paradox of "excess matter" will advance physics even further once it's solved.ĭark matter - we don't really know what it is. This is puzzling to physicists and cosmologists, because you'd expect the Big Bang to make roughly equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Definitely not as much as regular matter as far as we can tell. It is not clear why, but it seems like there isn't that much antimatter out there, more like trace amounts. Matter and antimatter are definitely related: same thing, but with opposite signs. For this reason, should a lump of matter touch a lump of antimatter, they would annihilate, and a giant explosion would result because of the huge energy released (E=mc^2). When a particle meets its anti-particle, they "annihilate": the two particles disappear, and gamma photons are released carrying off their energy. The positron is the "anti-particle" of the electron. E.g., our electrons are negatively charged, whereas a positron (an antimatter "electron") is positively charged. Antimatter is the same as matter in every way, looks the same, behaves the same, except its particles have electrical charges opposite to matter.
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