Uncovering the Mystery of Anti-Matter in Our Galaxy

[Tanelorn]

I had not heard of this, so I thought others might be interested.

I thought that all natural Anti matter had been lost at the beginning of the Universe, but apparently there is a 10000 light year cloud of anti matter near the center of our galaxy:

http://www.space.com/4837-source-mysterious-antimatter.html

Any comments?

 

[mathman]

The article seems to imply that the anti-matter is of recent origin, not from the beginning of the universe. It appears to consist of positrons coming from high energy gamma ray reactions (pair production).

 

[Drakkith]

I had not heard of this, so I thought others might be interested.

I thought that all natural Anti matter had been lost at the beginning of the Universe, but apparently there is a 10000 light year cloud of anti matter near the center of our galaxy:

http://www.space.com/4837-source-mysterious-antimatter.html

Any comments?

Natural anti-matter is being made constantly in the universe, so it isn't that much of a surprise to find a cloud of it. But an interesting read nonetheless.

 

[clamtrox]

Hmm, is it a cloud of antimatter or just a cloud of regular matter with enough antimatter to make it glow? How did the antimatter from pair-production get separated from ordinary matter then?

 

[twofish-quant]

Hmm, is it a cloud of antimatter or just a cloud of regular matter with enough antimatter to make it glow?

It's not a cloud of pure anti-matter. What happens is that if you heat something hot enough, it will start generating anti-matter/matter pairs. The anti-matter then interacts with the matter and gives you a specific radiation line.

How did the antimatter from pair-production get separated from ordinary matter then?

When you produce an anti-matter/matter pair, the particles go in opposite directions. The anti-matter just continues until it hits some other piece of matter.

 

[clamtrox]

It's not a cloud of pure anti-matter. What happens is that if you heat something hot enough, it will start generating anti-matter/matter pairs. The anti-matter then interacts with the matter and gives you a specific radiation line.

If the temperature were low enough to only produce electron-positron pairs, then you could separate them by electric or magnetic fields or whatever, but I guess that is not what is happening here.