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submitted 1 year ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world
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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 91 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Huh I didn't know antimatter was a completely confirmed thing.

After making a thin gas of thousands of antihydrogen atoms, researchers pushed it up a 3-metre-tall vertical shaft surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils. These can create a kind of magnetic ‘tin can’ to keep the antimatter from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Next, the researchers let some of the hotter antiatoms escape, so that the gas in the can got colder, down to just 0.5 °C above absolute zero — and the remaining antiatoms were moving slowly.

The researchers then gradually weakened the magnetic fields at the top and bottom of their trap — akin to removing the lid and base of the can — and detected the antiatoms using two sensors as they escaped and annihilated. When opening any gas container, the contents tend to expand in all directions, but in this case the antiatoms’ low velocities meant that gravity had an observable effect: most of them came out of the bottom opening, and only one-quarter out of the top.

[-] BloodSlut@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Not only does it exist, but bananas give off a fair bit of antimatter due to their decaying potassium isotopes.

Allegedly, im not smart enough to verify it

[-] plistig@feddit.de 27 points 1 year ago

Would an anti-banana give off normal matter?

[-] Sargteapot@lemmy.nz 18 points 1 year ago
[-] taigaman@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago

I don't think it would antimatter

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Argument anihilated!

[-] 768@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago

AFAIK, yes, you might wanna look into β+- and β־-decay

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

AFAIK, yes.

There are some very small differences between matter and anti-matter, but I don't think any of them affect radioactivity.

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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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