History of Antimatter
Antimatter is a mirror image of
matter. In 1898,
Arthur Schuster, British physicist, coined the name "antimatter." He believed there were entire stellar systems of
antimatter that were indistinguishable from our solar system. He also
thought matter and
antimatter would annihilate each other to produce huge quantities of energy
and anticipated the
concepts of special relativity and quantum physics. In 1905, Albert Einstein
unveiled his
special relativity theory explaining the relationship between space &
time, and energy & mass in his famous equation, E=mc2.
Hermann Minkowski realized space & time were coupled together by a
four-dimensional. In 1919,
Theodor Kaluza, unified Maxwell's Electromagnetism, Einstein's Theory of
General Relativity and Gravity by adding a 5th dimension. Max Planck proposed
that light was composed of little packets called "quantum� to explain how light
was not just a wave or just a particle, but a combination of both. Using this
theory, Erwin Schr�dinger and Werner Heisenberg apply the concept to the atoms and
invented
quantum theory of physics.
When
Paul Dirac combined the equations for quantum theory and special relativity, the solution
contained an electron with positive energy and a positive electron (positron)
with negative energy. In 1930, Carl Anderson discovered the positron when he
Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle developed the Steady State
Universe Model assuming the universe was composed of
matter and antimatter. In 1966,
Hannes Alfven developed the Plasma Model of the Universe by incorporating
the scientific observations into the Steady State Model. A
plasma is the 4th state of matter and is sometimes called dark matter and energy
by astrophysics.
Alfven received a Nobel Prize.
Anthony Peratt has developed computer models that simulated the known
galaxies in the universe.
When antimatter enters our solar system, it is called comets. The
quantity of antimatter in our solar system is a million times less than
scientists had estimated. In 2002,
Norm Hansen
announced the discovery that comets are composed of antimatter to the
joint meeting of
American Physical Society &
American
Astronomical Society.
Hundreds of antimatter
sungrazers comets have collided with the Sun and produced large
explosions. National Geographic
magazine, July 2004 issue, discusses solar bursts that are equivalent to
billions of megatons of TNT. When Earth passes through these enormous solar
storms, communication satellites have been damaged and electrical power on Earth
disrupted. Comets are not only colliding with the Sun, but also colliding with stars throughout
the Universe and are the source of gamma-ray bursts that scientists have been studying for 40 years.
