Antimatter

Antimatter is much like normal matter, but its constituent particles carry the opposite electrical charge of their normal matter counterparts. Antiparticles can be created from energy in a particle accelerator, and they can form naturally during certain kinds of radioactive decay.

• The anti-particle for the electron is the positron. It has the same mass as an electron, but it carries a positive charge instead of a negative charge.
• The anti-particle for the proton is the antiproton. It has the same mass as a proton and a negative charge.
• The anti-particle for the neutron is the antineutron. It has the same mass as a neutron and carries no charge, but it will still annihilate a neutron because the antineutron itself is composed of charged antiquarks.
• Smaller subatomic particles like quarks also have antiparticles.
• Massless particles like photons generally don't have antiparticles.

If a particle of matter comes into contact with its anti-particle, both will "annihilate" each other, converting their combined mass into energy.

Antiparticles can chemically interact with each other in much the way ordinary particles do. For instance, an antiproton and a positron can combine to form anti-hydrogen.

Antimatter in Science Fiction

• Several Star Trek factions, including the Federation, use antimatter as fuel for their starships.
• Antimatter frequently appears in science fiction stories as an explosive, sometimes in the warheads of missiles of one kind or another.

See Also

• Matter-antimatter annihilation

External Links

• What is Antimatter?