CERN makes another big step
Credit: CERN; Untrapped antihydrogen atoms annihilating on the inner surface of the ALPHA trap. These are measured by the ALPHA annihilation detector.
Last week, scientists took another giant step towards a better understanding of Planet Earth—and of the whole universe for that matter! The staff of the ALPHA experiment succeeded in trapping and observing about 300 antimatter atoms for over 1,000 seconds. The atomic star of this show is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen, the most thoroughly researched element on the periodic table.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WN-zk_giKw
Why this development constitutes a breakthrough in CERN’s research is quickly explained. Scientists assume that large parts of our universe consist of antimatter. Long ago—that is, during and immediately after The Big Bang—matter and antimatter were pretty much in balance, and at some point this equilibrium shifted in favor of matter. Or maybe it didn’t.
In any case, researchers now have the opportunity to take a close-up look at hydrogen’s antimatter twin. After all, even if 300 atoms don’t amount to very much in the way of substance, 1,000 seconds amounts to a quarter of an hour, which is a veritable eternity in atomic terms. Thus, the atoms have time settle down, to make the transition from their process of origination to a halfway stable state, and since scientists know what a hydrogen atom looks like, they can identify and interpret even the minutest differences. And it just might be that these findings and insights lead to a quantum shift in the way the world is perceived—at least by physicists. And this will most certainly have consequences for all the rest of us sooner or later.
More fotos:
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1307522
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1349934
