Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratories have discovered a new kind of antimatter nucleus, which could help explain why almost everything in the universe is made of matter instead of antimatter.
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven lab smashes atoms into each other — at seven trillion degrees and nearly the speed of light — to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang.
Researchers there studied six billion of these high-speed collisions and discovered a new antimatter nucleus. It’s the heaviest ever detected.
Physicist Jamie Dunlop said the discovery bolsters scientific understanding about how the universe operates and what it's made of.
"Anytime you convert pure energy into matter, you create matter and antimatter as twins," Dunlop explained. "But you and I, and the trees and the sky, and everything around us are made out of matter. There's no antimatter left over from the Big Bang, and that's a huge mystery.”
Dunlop said scientists are studying whether the interactions between particles inside the nucleus of antimatter work the same way as matter.
“By comparing the properties of these nuclei to the properties of their partner, matter nucleus, you can see if there's any difference," he said. "And maybe there's a difference in the properties of matter and antimatter, and that's what explains why the universe is made out of matter and not antimatter.”
