Scientists get closer to solving mystery of antimatter [View all]

Related: Antimatter falls down, not up: CERN experiment confirms theory (Nature)

______________________________________________________________________

Source: BBC

Scientists get closer to solving mystery of antimatter

27 September 2023

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Scientists have made a key discovery about antimatter - a mysterious substance which was plentiful when the Universe began.

Antimatter is the opposite of matter, from which stars and planets are made.

Both were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang which formed our Universe. While matter is everywhere, though, its opposite is now fiendishly hard to find.

The latest study has discovered the two respond to gravity in the same way.

-snip-

Some theorists have predicted that antimatter might fall up, though most, notably Albert Einstein in his General theory of Relativity more than a hundred years ago, say it should behave just like matter, and fall downwards.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66890649