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Unit 7: Astrophysics Page 21
and release a huge amount of Scientists are still trying to figure
energy. The question is, what is out what they are and how they
antimatter? And what makes it act. Most of these live only for a
'anti'? very short time (think less than a
blink of an eye), so scientists have
Let's take the example of the to be very fast at taking their data.
electron. An electron is a small bit
of matter with a negative charge Surprise!
and a certain amount of mass. The
antimatter component to the Matter and antimatter pairs are
electron is called the positron. The constantly popping in and out of
positron has the same mass as the existence in our universe. One
electron, but its charge is positive. minute, they don't exist, then next
That's all there is to it. Antimatter second POP! there they are... but
counterparts have characteristics then faster than you can blink, the
that are opposite from their pair smacks into each other and
companion particle. POOF! both are destroyed and give
off a puff of energy. It's just one of
Dark Matter the weird ways that the universe is
wired. This is also the basis for
When you look up at the stars how black holes evaporate (we'll
tonight, notice how many bright talk about Hawking
stars you see. Is there more light Radiation later).
or dark space in the night sky?
Even though it seems that there's What other
a lot of empty space out there, particles are
there is way more matter inside
there?
stars than anywhere else in our
universe. All visible matter is made
Physicists gave these little bits of
up of protons, neutrons, and
matter all sorts of odd names. Are
electrons... but there are hundreds
you ready for these?
of other kinds of particles that
make up matter as well. Here are the most common
fundamental particles (meaning
This invisible mass is called dark
that you can't split it in half
matter, and some of it takes the
anymore - it's as small as it can
form of MACHOs (massive compact
get: leptons and quarks. There are
halo objects) and WIMPs (weakly
six different types of leptons but
interacting massive particles).
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