You certainly have heard a lot about matter and Einstein’s famous equation (E = mc²), but what about antimatter? As obvious as it may sound, it is just the opposite of normal matter. But, calm down, we’ll explain you better:

The antimatter

For a long time it was considered only a theory, but the antimatter came to be looked real in 1928, because of the British physicist Paul A.C. Dirac. He reviewed Einstein’s equation and concluded that, in fact, the mass (m) could be composed of both positive and negative particles. In this way, the equation became E = ± mc² and the existence of the antiparticles could be proven.

The antiparticles

Since the mass could be composed of positive or negative particles, the antiparticles must have exactly the same mass as their corresponding particle, but with reverse electric charges. Look that:

• Positrons: are the antiparticles of electrons, they have a positive charge instead of negative. They were discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932;
• Antiprotons: with the same mass as protons, they have a negative charge instead of a positive charge. Researchers at Berkeley Bevatron particle accelerator produced it in 1955;
• Anti-atoms: scientists from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, created the first anti-atom by pairing positrons and antiprotons.

Why is antimatter important?
In fact, antimatter constitutes the greater part of our universe, however the difficulty is in being able to produce it in great quantity, because antimatter is not found in the Earth.

This also leads to another question, which is the fact that when antimatter encounters “normal” matter, the particles collide and produce an explosion that emits radiation at the speed of light. This explosion transforms the mass of objects into energy, which scientists believe is much more powerful and can be generated in other ways.

What did you think about the antimatter concept? It’s simpler than it sounds, don’t you think? Follow our blog and check out other curiosities from the world of physics.