Lifestyle
Scientists Get a Look at the Light Spectrum of Antimatter
Since 1928 when scientists introduced the world to the idea of antimatter, they have tried to find a way to see/capture it. The Washington Post says that first they needed to create an antimatter atom, and then, they needed to figure out how to contain it for study.
After decades of work, scientists at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Physics) have managed to make antihydrogen, grab it using a magnet and hurry it into a trap. The trick is to move fast enough, so the antimatter doesn’t meet matter, because if it does, they destroy each other instantly.
According to IFL Science, “CERN said this experiment was the first time the light spectrum of matter and antimatter had ever been compared. Interestingly, both hydrogen and antihydrogen were found to have identical light spectrums – a prediction made by the Standard Model of particle physics.”
In the future, researchers hope to come closer to answering the question of why there’s so much more matter in the universe than antimatter. It is thought that both were made in equal amounts during the Big Bang, but if that’s true, how did the two not immediately cancel each other out? How are we in existence?
