Posted: 3/27/2008 7:17:30 PM EDT
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I have a question about antimatter. When two unequal pieces of antimatter come into contact, do equal amounts explode, or do both bodies go kaboom? In other words, if 100 kg of antimatter comes into contact with, say, 90 kg of regular matter, will there be 10 kg of antimatter floating around? I actually have a good reason for asking this question, and I will reveal it later (if I survive). |
| Actually...there is a theory that in the instant of the "big bang" there was a near equal amount of matter and anti-matter with only slightly more matter being present. The matter and anti-matter connected and obliterated each other leaving only the tiny amount of matter still here. That tiny amount of matter is everything in the universe today. |
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OK. If anti-matter is truly anti-matter, then there is no "clumps" of anti-matter. Anti-matter is merely the lack of any matter being present. Pure energy. For that to happen, the matter in the location must be pulled by electro-magnetic forces away so that it will not migrate to that location via brownian motion or other means (ejecting quarks, ect). Maybe only a black hole can do that. So the question is somewhat useless unless you are standing next to a black hole. In reality, there is anti-matter everywhere. It is just equally "disperse". Even in space there is gases and dust. So the anti-matter is more present when matter is less present. You need to stop watching Star Trek, go to a bar, and get laid. Then go home and ask you mom to do your laundry. 
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ummm no. fail. |
That's abourt what I figured. Here's the reason for my question. Some years ago there was a comet (Hyakaluke [sp?]) passing through the solar system. Scientists were very puzzled by the fact that it was emitting X-rays. X-rays are associated with rather hot events-- and comets, by their nature, are very cold items. So here's my therory: An 'anti-matter comet' was passing through the neighborhood. As it got closer to Sol, it began to be bombarded with space dust. Each tiny speck of dust striking the surface of the comet exploded, annhilating an equal amount of matter and antimatter... and the antimatter very close to the explosion got blown off the surface of the antimatter comet. Enough of these explosions occurred to cause a 'halo' around the antimatter comet... and instead of interacting with the comet itself, the space dust (normal matter, remember) simply reacted with the halo... causing very hot events which generated the X-rays. Enough 'normal' matter made it to the comet's surface to maintain the halo. Shoot holes in this now, I care not. Its 10:30 Albuquirky time and I'm tahred. |
No anit-matter is just like regular matter but with the opposite charge. Positrons are anti electrons. That is an electron that is + charged instead of - charged.
Well that is an interesting idea. Small matter antimatter collisions could certainly generate x-ray emissions. So could a number of other effects. I wouldn't jump to that conclusion right away. There is so much regular matter around it would be extremely improbable that enough antimatter could gather to form a comet. If such a thing existed it would have to come from outside the solar system... and probably not any where near the plane of the solar system. |
To expand on this - and while I hate to use wikipediea: In particle physics and quantum chemistry, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, whereby antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. So its matter - but matter with the parts having a reverse charge. We have made antimatter in the lab in TINY quantities. The energy potential is astounding. But the cost per miligram is too much for us to consider it for use right now. Its POSSIBLE that whole galaxies are made up of antimatter. Its really not something we can detect. Yet. |
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I'd expect the energy released would blow up the two lumps of "stuff" long before they had a chance to completely annihilate each other. I'd expect some of each to survive, but very widely dispersed. 'course, I could just be talking out my ass... I'm not a physics major, just an engineer. |
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I could not recall where I read it from originally, but it appears that Antimatter has been found in the Milky Way. This is the first hit that I found in Goolge: www.physorg.com/news119109289.html and this one provides more info: www.spacetoday.org/DeepSpace/Galaxies/MilkyWay/Antimatter.html |
correct, assuming the "explosion" didn't initiate a thermonuclear reaction with the remaining matter, which would have converted a small percentage to energy |
Enough to take out this corner of the solar system, at least! (or am I talking up my sleeve?) |
shit, I forgot about how antimatter works, sorry man |
That's a whole lotta boom. |
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Well compare it to other similar items. Each second the Sun converts about 600,000,000 tons of hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei. These fusion reactions convert part of these atoms' mass (roughly 4 million tons) into energy, and release an enormous amount of this heat and light energy into the Solar System. In these fusion reactions, the Sun loses 4 million tons of mass each second. The Sun's core can reach 10 to 22.5 million°F. The surface temperature is approximately 9,900°F (5,500°C). The outer atmosphere of the Sun gets extremely hot, up to 1.5 to 2 million degrees. At the center of big sunspots the temperature can be as low as 7300 °F (4300 K, 4000 °C). It can take a million years or more for the energy created at the Sun's center to fight its way to the surface, where it gets radiated into space. |
 Your math doesn't make sense and neither does what you say. Anti-matter/matter collision is 100% efficient at converting mass to energy. Fusion is typically less than 1% and fission even lower. Chemical reactions are so inefficient you normally can't even measure the mass loss. |
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Fuel In antimatter-matter collisions resulting in photon emission, the entire rest mass of the particles is converted to kinetic energy. The energy per unit mass (9×1016 J/kg) is about 10 orders of magnitude greater than chemical energy (compared to TNT at 4.2×106 J/kg, and formation of water at 1.56×107 J/kg), about 4 orders of magnitude greater than nuclear energy that can be liberated today using nuclear fission (about 40 MeV per 238U nucleus transmuted to Lead, or 1.5×1013 J/kg), and about 2 orders of magnitude greater than the best possible from fusion (about 6.3×1014 J/kg for the proton-proton chain). The reaction of 1 kg of antimatter with 1 kg of matter would produce 1.8×1017 J (180 petajoules) of energy (by the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc²), or the rough equivalent of 47 megatons of TNT. For comparison, Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated produced an estimated 57 mt and was capable of over 100mt, but utilized hundreds of kg's of fissile material. Not all of that energy can be utilized by any realistic technology, because as much as 50% of energy produced in reactions between nucleons and antinucleons is carried away by neutrinos, so, for all intents and purposes, it can be considered lost.[5] link |
 10 orders of magnitude is not "10x", it's 10^10x. |
The theory I heard was that there was just a singular point of infinite energy. It exploded, pouring all of the energy into the creation of matter and antimatter. |
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Right but then following the "moment of creation" matter and anti-matter started colliding annihilating each other. link And sue me over my scientific notation. 
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go here: www.whatthebleep.com/index2.shtml or the PBS or Discovery series on Quantum Physics |
Marlee Matlin. Pretty girl (I'm partial to brunettes) but a poor conversationalist. |
fail. |