CERN scientists get antimatter ready for its first road trip

[Binary_Bark]

Antimatter is notoriously tricky to store and study, thanks to the fact that it will vanish in a burst of energy if it so much as touches regular matter. The CERN lab is one of the only places in the world that can readily produce the stuff, but getting it into the hands of the scientists who want to study it is another matter (pun not intended). After all, how can you transport something that will annihilate any physical container you place it in? Now, CERN researchers are planning to trap and truck antimatter from one facility to another.

Antimatter is basically the evil twin of normal matter. Each antimatter particle is identical to its ordinary counterpart in almost every way, except it carries the opposite charge, leading the two to destroy each other if they come into contact. Neutron stars and jets of plasma from black holes may be natural sources, and it even seems to be formed in the Earth's atmosphere with every bolt of lightning.

Studying antimatter could help us unlock some of the Universe's most profound mysteries – but, of course, the Universe isn't giving up those answers easily. Positrons (or anti-electrons) were the first antimatter particles to be observed in experiments in the 1930s, and like regular matter, these antiparticles clump together to form atoms of antimatter.

More At: https://newatlas.com/cern-plan-transport-antimatter/53536/

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

I think I'm terrified.

Most of the physicists I have ever known would be like this:

 

[mercurial]

This is not going to end well.

 

[grok]

Do you want people with superpowers? 'Cos this is how you get people with superpowers..

 

[konfab]

This is not going to end well.

I did a quick back of the envelope calculation.
If they are transporting 1 billion protons:
The mass of a proton is 1.6726219 × 10-27 kg, same as the mass of an anti-proton.
This means that 1 billion of them is 1.6726219 × 10-18 kg
Multiply that by the speed of light squared.
8.98755179 × 10 ^(16) m2 / s2
=0.150327759 J of energy.

Multiply that by 2 because there is annihilation:
=0.3 J of energy.

The fuel in the petrol tank in the van they are transporting the antimatter in has more of a capacity for destruction than the antimatter itself.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I did a quick back of the envelope calculation.
If they are transporting 1 billion protons:
The mass of a proton is 1.6726219 × 10-27 kg, same as the mass of an anti-proton.
This means that 1 billion of them is 1.6726219 × 10-18 kg
Multiply that by the speed of light squared.
8.98755179 × 10 ^(16) m2 / s2
=0.150327759 J of energy.

Multiply that by 2 because there is annihilation:
=0.3 J of energy.

The fuel in the petrol tank in the van they are transporting the antimatter in has more of a capacity for destruction than the antimatter itself.

Liez!...

Its the end of the world as we know it.
[video=youtube;Z0GFRcFm-aY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY[/video]

 

[Ninja'd]

I did a quick back of the envelope calculation.
If they are transporting 1 billion protons:
The mass of a proton is 1.6726219 × 10-27 kg, same as the mass of an anti-proton.
This means that 1 billion of them is 1.6726219 × 10-18 kg
Multiply that by the speed of light squared.
8.98755179 × 10 ^(16) m2 / s2
=0.150327759 J of energy.

Multiply that by 2 because there is annihilation:
=0.3 J of energy.

The fuel in the petrol tank in the van they are transporting the antimatter in has more of a capacity for destruction than the antimatter itself.

 

[ponder]

Oh god not this schite again, it's like those idiots that said the LHC will create a black hole that's gonna swallow earth...

 

[c3n0byt3]

I think I'm terrified.

Most of the physicists I have ever known would be like this:
View attachment 501747

Still save the day though...