Mirror of the Universe -- Antimatters

At the beginning of our universe, there was a big bang...
At that point, particles are created from virtually nothing...
What are particles made out of?
This question troubled scientists for centuries...
Scientists investigating the structure of subatomic particles are just like cavemen investigating the structure of stone...
To investigate what are stones made up of, cavemen bring two stones together, colliding them...
To investigate what subatomic particles are made up of, scientist do the same thing......


Have you ever heard of the LHC?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/14/science/15cern.xlarge1.jpg

If you are an avid reader, or if you had watched the movie 'Angels and Demons', no doubt, you would know what it is...

LHC, or Large Hadron Collider is  a particle accelerator located underground in Geneva, Switzerland.
This gigantic machine/research facility

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/CMS_Higgs-event.jpg
Higgs Bosons created in a particle collision

In the LHC, experiments are constantly carried out to investigate the nature of matter.

http://www.ift.uam.es/en/system/files/lhc_hall_1.jpg

 Superconducting magnets in the collider accelerates particles such as protons to bear 99.9% the speed of light in opposite directions

When these particles collide, scientist could then obtain information about the structure of the subatomic particles.

In November 2008,  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they had successfully produced antimatter in the form of positrons (the opposite of electron)




So, what exactly are these anti-matters?


Fundamental physical particles are defined by their mass, charge and magnetic moment (interaction with magnetic field).


Matter as learnt by any secondary-school student, has mass, occupies volume and are made up of particles.

http://spm-chemistry.wikispaces.com/file/view/states_of_matter.gif/32349521/states_of_matter.gif
The different state of matter

These particles such as atoms or ions are made up of even smaller particles such as electron, proton and neutron.

http://www.biocrawler.com/w/images/d/d8/Atom_diagram.png
Subatomic particles of an atom

Different elements has different structures made up from subatomic particles.
For example, hydrogen is made up of one proton and one electron, where the electron orbits around a nucleus made up of one proton
Helium,on the other hand, is made up of two proton, two electrons and two neutrons where the two electrons orbits around a nucleus made up of two protons and two neutron held together by nuclear strong force.


For antimatters, the same rules apply, but with anti-particles. For instance, an anti-hydrogen is made up of a positron (positively charged electron) orbiting around an antiproton. While an anti-helium is made up of two positrons orbiting around a nucleus made up of two antiprotons and two antineutrons.

http://www.futuretimeline.net/22ndcentury/images/antimatter-power-plant.jpg
Antimatter-matter annihilation reaction

When an antiparticle meets its counterpart (the particle), they destroy each other completely in a process known as annihilation. This process converts the masses of the antiparticle and particle into energy and releases high energy gamma ray photons.

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The total amount of energy release in this reaction is governed by the formula, E=MC^2 where E is the total amount of energy released, M is the combined mass of the matter and anti-matter, and C^2 is the speed of light squared.


Since annihilation process is a 100% efficient reaction, the energy released is stronger than nuclear reactions.


In nuclear reaction, the total mass loss is a fraction of the total mass, for example, when uranium undergoes radioactive decay, it is transmuted into plutonium that has a lower mass. The loss mass in this reaction appears as high energy gamma rays released, alpha and beta emission.


In antimatter-matter reaction, the total mass loss is equal to the total mass annihilated which, in turn, is the total amount of mass in the whole reaction.


To understand more about the LHC and Antimatter, listen to the song below:





As a conclusion, it is save to assume that Antimatter may, one day, replace all other sources of energy as the cleanest source of energy. 

Big things comes in small packages...

Have you ever wondered what we are made of?

Of course, plainly, we are made up of cells...

Cells are made up of proteins, which in turn, are made up of amino acids...

Besides that, our body also contains 57%* of water        *average statistics for adult males

So, what are water molecules and those amino acid molecules made up of?

Atoms.

The fundamental building block of everything.

Initially, the atom was thought to be indivisible.

Then again, the alchemists has their "I-told-you-so!" when during the late 90's physicists found out that atoms can be divided into subatomic particles such as electrons, protons and neutrons. Again, alchemists has their "I-told-you-so!" when scientist discovered that transmutation between elements are possible through nuclear reaction and radioactive decay as opposed to the classical scientific notion that an element could never be able to be transmuted into another different element. 

The atom, in physical term, harness a lot more energy than you and I can ever imagine.

By exploiting the power of nuclear reaction, mankind is able to produce an enormous amount of energy. As seen in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident, however, this huge amount of energy could be potentially disastrous. On 26th April 1986, a nuclear power plant incident in Chernobyl has awakened the public to the dangers of nuclear power. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Chernobyl_Disaster.jpg

Nevertheless, as the saying goes, big things comes in small packages..... don't ever underestimate the energy that lies dormant in a single atom.

If an atom could contain that much power...

I am sure our body contains enough energy to destroy earth itself...

Lets no waste that energy on chaos and destruction.

Instead, focus it in building and development of our country!

The pit of Doom

It was indeed a nice afternoon in MosaicLand,

my walk has taken me far away from the sound of the flowing stream.

Much to my amusement, my walk seems to bring me to the heart of a jungle.

Here, I saw rabbits of various shapes and sizes,

each glowing with a distinctive glow...

One by one, I saw them jump into a deep and dark pit...

Each one who jumped down was never to be seen again...

The black hole, a dark invisible star killer is an object with such a great gravity that nothing can move fast enough to escape from it, not even light.

My brother's impression of a black hole

Since light could not escape from it, we will not be able to see it even if we have the most sophisticated telescope.

Scientists and astronomers are able to predict the positions of black holes based on the behavior of stars nearby.

The birth of black hole

Scientist believes that black holes are formed when super-massive star dies.
A super massive star is a star with a great mass, such as red-giants.
Usually, a super massive star will shed out its outermost layer first when they die. This is followed layer by layer until the star is shrunk into nothingness...
However, if the gravitational pull of the star is huge enough, it will start to pull all its outer layer into its core, forming a dense, heavy object.
This object is then, known as the black hole, an object with a gravitational field so large, the space-time fabric is bended by it, preventing even light from coming out.

Spotting a black hole

How to spot a black hole?
Easy!
As I have mentioned earlier, scientists observes stars nearby to find black holes, but how exactly?

Imagine water going down the hole...
It swirls around first, before actually going in...

image from: http://www.spiralwishingwells.com/guide/images/whirlpool2.jpg

  In the same manner, dust particles and cosmic gases forms a disk around a black hole. This disk, known as accretion disk, is what astronomers look for when they are on a black hole hunt.

Ah,..
what an amusing thing to do,
Watching rabbits attracted helplessly into the pit of doom,
falling, falling and falling,
Into the never-ending pit of doom...

Hmm... Gravity

It was a nice day in MosaicLand,
I was just about to fall asleep underneath an apple tree...
THUD!! an apple fell on my head...
It was then I wondered, why does the apple fall,
The same question, asked by Newton centuries ago...

Gravity is the force that attracts each of us to the center of the earth...
Or is it?
In modern physics, gravity is defined as the force of attraction between two or more masses...
In layman's term, this means that everything that has mass, exerts a gravitational force on each other.
This includes you and me. Yes! actually, all of us are exerting a force on each other. However, the force that we exerts on each other is so insignificant, they are usually ignored by physicists.

Taking into the consideration that an object as massive as our planet Earth could only exert an force of 9.8N/kg (approximation) on any object on Earth, it is not surprising why attractive force between everyday objects could be neglected.

Image from wikipedia.org

The moon, however, tells us a different story.
With a gravitational field of only 1/6 of that on Earth, it can easily affect the climatic change and tides on Earth.
The orbit of the moon will cause high and low tides in the ocean. This happens because water particles on Earth is attracted by the gravitational pull of the moon, and thus, rise to form high tides. Low tides forms when there is no gravitational effect from the moon.


Wow! Gravity, what a wonderful thing...
As I was wondering, what happens if we bring gravity into the cyberworld?
Google with gravity