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CERN sheds light on one of the most intriguing mysteries yet.
In the world of physics, each fundamental particle has its own antiparticle-a mirror double with opposite characteristics. When they meet, annihilation occurs, releasing energy.
In science fiction, antiparticles serve as a source of energy for hyperdrives. There have been suggestions that antiparticles can be repelled by gravity or even move backwards in time. However, a new experiment at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) refuted these speculations. It turned out that in a gravitational field, antiparticles fall in the same way as ordinary particles.
The experiment was conducted by an international group of scientists called ALPHA. They created about 100 hydrogen antiatoms and kept them in a magnetic field. As the field decreased, the antiatoms fell at the same accelerated rate as ordinary atoms. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.
These results were not a revelation to scientists. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, all forms of matter and energy react equally to gravity. Despite this, the experiment was necessary, as its opposite outcome could dramatically change our understanding of physics.
Interest in antimatter began in 1928, when physicist Paul Dirac discovered that the equation describing an electron has two solutions: one with a negative charge and the other with a positive one. This positively charged particle was called a positron.
For the past 20 years, scientists from the ALPHA group have been collecting antimatter at CERN. They studied the antiatoms of hydrogen to test hypotheses about the nature of antimatter.
However, the unanswered question remains: why didn't the complete annihilation of matter and antimatter occur after the Big Bang? Why is our universe made up entirely of matter? This question has remained open for almost a century.
In the world of physics, each fundamental particle has its own antiparticle-a mirror double with opposite characteristics. When they meet, annihilation occurs, releasing energy.
In science fiction, antiparticles serve as a source of energy for hyperdrives. There have been suggestions that antiparticles can be repelled by gravity or even move backwards in time. However, a new experiment at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) refuted these speculations. It turned out that in a gravitational field, antiparticles fall in the same way as ordinary particles.
The experiment was conducted by an international group of scientists called ALPHA. They created about 100 hydrogen antiatoms and kept them in a magnetic field. As the field decreased, the antiatoms fell at the same accelerated rate as ordinary atoms. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.
These results were not a revelation to scientists. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, all forms of matter and energy react equally to gravity. Despite this, the experiment was necessary, as its opposite outcome could dramatically change our understanding of physics.
Interest in antimatter began in 1928, when physicist Paul Dirac discovered that the equation describing an electron has two solutions: one with a negative charge and the other with a positive one. This positively charged particle was called a positron.
For the past 20 years, scientists from the ALPHA group have been collecting antimatter at CERN. They studied the antiatoms of hydrogen to test hypotheses about the nature of antimatter.
However, the unanswered question remains: why didn't the complete annihilation of matter and antimatter occur after the Big Bang? Why is our universe made up entirely of matter? This question has remained open for almost a century.
