Antimatter belt around Earth discovered by Pamela craft

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)
A thin band of antimatter particles called antiprotons enveloping the Earth has been spotted for the first time.

The find, described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter.
(snip)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14405122

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Interesting note:

Dr Bruno said that, aside from confirming theoretical work that had long predicted the existence of these antimatter bands, the particles could also prove to be a novel fuel source for future spacecraft - an idea explored in a report for Nasa's Institute for Advanced Concepts.

[Cool Logic]

6. "the particles could also prove to be a novel fuel source for future spacecraft"

Or maybe even a replacement for fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

I have a feeling that in the not so distant future, solar panels and windmills will appear to have been very primitive attempts at generating green energy.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. And not the too distant past..... must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMe_kOl1Z3M

[YankeyMCC]

8. That does sound exciting

How difficult would it be to engineer an efficient means of harvesting it though? Assuming we have a launch capability to reach the belt.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Good question.... it would have to be done with a mechanism that is able to funnel them

down into a magnetic bottle of some sort. I think that is how they hold them now but I don't believe they can hold them for very long, yet.

[midnight]

2. I absolutely love the picture depicting the visual of what happens

to the protons when:" Antiprotons "annihiliate" if they come into contact with normal protons" Not sure what that means...

[caraher]

4. It means they transform from 2 particles into other forms of energy

Typically, particle-antiparticle collisions result in their transformation into gamma rays.

This is the process behind positron emission tomography (PET) scans. The patient is injected with radioactive tracer molecules, and those undergo decays in which positrons - which are anti-electrons - are released. The positrons very quickly encounter electrons, and the electron-positron pairs "annihilate," releasing (in most cases) two gamma rays that travel in almost opposite directions. Detectors surrounding the patient absorb (some of) the gamma rays; when two register counts simultaneously it's a sign that some of the tracer was on a line between the two detectors, and from that information an image of the tracer's distribution in the body can be reconstructed.

Getting back to this article, using antimatter for propulsion and other purposes has the virtue that annihilation releases the maximum possible energy from the "fuel" particles (the full E=mc^2). But there are enormous technical challenges to doing anything useful with antimatter ranging from storing the antimatter to harnessing the energy released (which tends to come in the form of gamma rays of inconveniently high energy, sprayed in completely random directions).

[Tesha]

10. That's the tracks from all the particles thrown off in the annihilation.

When a particle and an anti-particle "annihilate", they don't
necessarily just blink out of existence. Instead, they may
throw off a bunch of debris.

Some of the particles are neutral, some have a positive electric
charge, and some have a negative electrical charge. Passing
through a magnetic field, charged particles whirl around, one
way for positively-charged particles, the other way way for
negatively-charged particles, and straight for neutral particles.

So what you have here is the recording of one particular collision.

Tesha

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. We're doomed.

[WillParkinson]

5. I picture the Earth asking...

Does this belt make my butt look big?

[Sailing]

9. Oh great! Now they're are going to build a Doomsday Machine

Capt Kirk: "Did you run a scanner check. What kind of a force beam?"

Cmdr Decker: "Pure anti-proton. Absolutely Pure!"

[laconicsax]

12. I believe Decker was a commodore, not a commander.

Cmdr is abbreviation for commander. Cdre is for commodore.