Re: Balloon-Borne Instrument Collects Antimatter

From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Thu Aug 19 1999 - 21:21:00 MDT


Clint O'Dell wrote:
>
> I'm no physicist, but doesn't anti-matter and matter annihilate each other?
> How could you capture anti-matter that is floating around with matter?

An anti-matter particle is only eliminated by its exact opposite. An
anti-electron cannot be eliminated by an anti-proton. The problem with
this balloon experiment is that the whole idea of anti-matter galaxies
existing in the present day is ludicrous unless there is to be another
big bang some time in the future. Any anti-matter that was created by
our original big bang that was not eliminated at the time of the big
bang is now some 26 billion years in the past, since anti-matter of any
kind is simply matter that is going backwards in time. If anti-matter
galaxies exist in the present day, then this means that we live in a
closed universe and that it will collapse some time in the future to
form a new big bang (or big bounce, as the case may be), as those
galaxies are from that future time. Since the current preponderance of
the evidence is that we live in an open universe, I predict that
anti-matter galaxies will not be found....

Mike Lorrey



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