Research plane flew into a cloud of antimatter

[MonsterD]

This is new.

http://www.nature.com/news/rogue-antimatter-found-in-thunderclouds-1.17526

During those frightening minutes, the detector picked up three spikes in γ-rays at an energy of 511 kiloelectronvolts, the signature of a positron annihilating with an electron.

Each γ-ray spike lasted about one-fifth of a second, Dwyer and his collaborators say, and was accompanied by some γ-rays of slightly lower energy. The team concluded that those γ-rays had lost energy as a result of travelling some distance and calculated that a short-lived cloud of positrons, 1–2 kilometres across, had surrounded the aircraft. But working out what could have produced such a cloud has proved hard. “We tried for five years to model the production of the positrons,” says Dwyer.

 

[CashMan]

This is new.

http://www.nature.com/news/rogue-antimatter-found-in-thunderclouds-1.17526

 

[MonsterD]

It is antimatter, which we don't really see on earth.

Here is a couple of quotes from a physics forum.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-antimatter-explosions-of-equal-yield.470392/

Where can we find anti matter in large amounts on Earth?

How does one define large? If > a picogram, then there is isn't such a source.

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-antimatter-explosions-of-equal-yield.470392/

Where can we find anti matter in large amounts on Earth?

Nowhere. They have managed to create and annihilate a few particles of anti hydrogen. It's not so much the creation that is difficult, although that's no mean feat, its the storage of such material that becomes problematic too. It tends to become annihilated by anything it comes into contact with matter wise. Theoretically anti matter-matter reactions should convert 100% of the matter to energy in the form of photons, of course in practice that wouldn't happen. Thermo-nuclear devices are only a few percent efficient though so in theory an anti matter device that held the same amount of matter antimatter as a modern ICBM does plutonium would probably take out the planet smashing it to pieces. I dread to think what the tectonic stresses would be, probably a good deal greater by several orders of magnitude than the cometary strike on Earth at 65ma on the Richter scale. Nice thought eh.

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-antimatter-explosions-of-equal-yield.470392/

 

[CashMan]

It is antimatter, which we don't really see on earth.

Here is a couple of quotes from a physics forum.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-antimatter-explosions-of-equal-yield.470392/

Ok, so I am really interested, but reading that forum, is like reading Greek.

So, this is research for a bomb? I would assume, propulsion in a space craft.

 

[MonsterD]

Ok, so I am really interested, but reading that forum, is like reading Greek.

So, this is research for a bomb? I would assume, propulsion in a space craft.

Geeze there could be a ton of applications if they could figure out something like naturally produced antimatter on Earth. Could also go a long way to figuring out more atomic/ sub atomic mysteries if they knew more about why this is happening.

 

[Roadtrip635]

The obvious question I have to ask is, did anyone on the plane gain super powers from this event?
This sounds like the perfect origin story for a new superhero, mild mannered research scientist flies through anti-matter cloud and gains some cool power!
If someone did gain a power from this event and are keeping it secret, what would it be? I'm guessing being able to shoot some kind of cosmic ray which would be pretty cool!

 

[YosemiteSam]

Anti-matter will power our warp drives!

The anti-matter found is in extremely small amounts otherwise. The annihilation would annihilate us! (changing all of our electrons into gamma rays via annihilation!)

1 pound of anti-matter contains 19.52 megatons of destructive force. The Fatboy bomb was only 20 kilotons (ie, not megatons) The Tunguska Event was 10 megatons, or half the yield of 1 pound of anti-matter / matter annihilation.

 

[Doc50]

Certainly, one would have to speculate that the data collection and validity are in question, considering the variable electromagnetic forces of lightning activity. Further studies would need to reproduce these findings with other instrumentation in similar conditions.