• Question: What is anti-matter?

    Asked by rhooper821 to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      It is the opposite of matter.
      A normal-matter atom is made from:
      electrons (negatively charged) orbiting a nucleus made of:
      protons (positively charged) and neutrons (no charge).

      An anti-matter atom is made from:
      positrons (positively charged) orbiting a nucleus made of
      anti-protons (negatively charged) and neutrons (no charge).

      But at sometime in the early universe, most of the antimatter was annihilated in collisions with matter – luckily there was STILL enough matter left over to make everything we see in the universe around us.

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      It’s something similar to matter but its particles have many opposing properties to those of matter, hence the name “anti”. A particle and its anti-particle disappear when they meet, which is why when scientists create antiparticles they are not around for long…

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