![]() If neutrinos and antimatter neutrinos act differently, it could be the answer to the mystery - which might mean that our Universe formed via leptogenesis (“creation from low-mass particles”). Researchers are building particle accelerators and detectors to study the behavior of neutrinos and antimatter neutrinos to see if they are different. Neutrinos are very low mass particles that are produced in some forms of radioactive decay, and the biggest nearby producer of neutrinos is our own Sun. However, the disparity between quark and antimatter quarks isn’t enough to explain the Universe, so researchers have another idea. How is it possible that there could be a tiny imbalance in the matter and antimatter of the early Universe? We don’t know, but scientists have some ideas.įor instance, in the 1960s, scientists discovered that the Universe slightly favors certain subatomic matter particles over their antimatter equivalents. It’s by measuring the CMB and counting the protons in the Universe that the matter-to-antimatter ratio was determined. We see it as a bath of radio waves, called the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The energy released when the matter and antimatter annihilated is everywhere. The two billion matter and antimatter particles annihilated each other, leaving the one matter particle to join up with all the other leftover matter particles to make up the matter we now see around us. And, indeed, this appears to be the case.Įvidence indicates that very early in the history of the Universe, less than a second after it began, for every two billion antimatter particles, there were two billion and one matter particles. If we are not saved by the possibility that matter and antimatter galaxies exist, where are we? We are left with the very strange possibility that somehow, when the Universe began, there was more matter than antimatter. ![]() In the intergalactic void between galaxies, clouds of gas surrounding the galaxies would touch, and we would know if a matter and antimatter cloud comingled. And the same principle rules out the existence of antimatter galaxies. Yet, when we look around us, we are left with a puzzling observation: The Universe we see is made solely of matter.īecause no such gamma radiation has been detected, we are certain that other stars are also made of matter. As the Universe expanded and cooled, all that energy should have made matter and antimatter in equal quantities. ![]() Energy can convert into matter and antimatter. When the Universe began, the cosmos was full of energy. When one combines these two facts, a puzzling mystery arises: They cannot simultaneously be true, or at a minimum, the story is incomplete. While the data proving both the existence of the Big Bang and antimatter are simply overwhelming, there is a problem. The existence of antimatter is sufficiently well accepted, such that it played a prominent (and somewhat realistic) role in Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel Angels and Demons. Antimatter was first observed in 1931 and, again, the case only has been strengthened. Energy can create matter and antimatter in equal quantities. While combining matter and antimatter can create energy, the converse is also true. ![]()
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