Click on left image for movie or 'mpg' version or high resolution still Credit: NASA / ESAĪntimatter is often called the "mirror image" of ordinary matter, because for every type of ordinary matter particle, an antimatter particle can be created that is identical except for an opposite electric charge or other fundamental properties.Īntimatter is rare in the present-day universe. This is a view of the flare from the SOHO spacecraft. Image left: Antimatter is generated beneath the flares after they accelerate particles. According to the RHESSI images and data, this antimatter was not destroyed where expected. Current technology only creates minute quantities, usually in miles-long machines employed to smash atoms together, but scientists discovered the July 2002 flare created a half-kilo (about one pound) of antimatter, enough to power the entire United States for two days. The results are part of a series of papers about the RHESSI observation to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters October 1.Īntimatter annihilates normal matter in a burst of energy, inspiring science fiction writers to use it as a supremely powerful source to propel starships. Gamma-rays and X-rays are the most energetic forms of light, with a particle of gamma ray light at the top of the scale carrying millions to billions of times more energy than a particle of visible light. (Click on image for movie) Credit: NASA/ LMSAL/ BBSO Image left: This July 23 flare tipped off scientists because the gamma rays (purple) were not emitted from the same locations as the X-rays (red and blue) as predicted. of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, who is the Principal Investigator for RHESSI. Robert Lin, a faculty member in the Dept. "We are taking pictures of flares in an entirely new color, one invisible to the human eye, so we expect surprises, and RHESSI gave us a couple already," said Dr. A team of researchers used NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft to take pictures of a solar flare on July 23, 2002, using the flare's high-energy X-rays and gamma radiation. Solar flares are among the most powerful explosions in the solar system the largest can release as much energy as a billion one-megaton nuclear bombs. (Click on images for movie or high resolution still) Credit: NASA When they hit the surface, they produce the X-rays and gamma rays and heat the gas to over 20 million degrees. These particles travel down the field lines towards the surface, home of the solar antimatter factory (see close-up sequence). They move together and when they touch, break like overstretched elastic bands that reconnect above and below the break point, and accelerate particles to high energies. The two orange lines extending above the surface of the Sun represent oppositely directed magnetic field lines extending out into the solar corona. It also gave surprising details about how they blast subatomic particles to almost the speed of light. The observation may upset theories about how the explosions, called solar flares, create and destroy antimatter. The best look yet at how a solar explosion becomes an antimatter factory gave unexpected insights into how the tremendous explosions work.
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