Earth’s Antimatter Belt (Yes, There Is One) Could Power Spacecraft

Astrophysicists have confirmed for the first time the existence of antimatter bands around the Earth.  A thin belt of antiprotons was found at altitudes of several hundred kilometres by the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA) satellite, launched in 2006 to study cosmic rays and investigate the possibility of near-Earth antimatter.

The antimatter is held sandwiched between the Van Allen belts, which are rings of ‘normal’ energetic particles created when cosmic rays collide with the Earth’s atmosphere, and trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field.  Theoretical physics had predicted that Earth’s magnetic field could also trap antimatter in this way, but this observational evidence will occasion a great deal of interest.

Alessandro Bruno and his research co-authors report that the magnetospheric antiproton flux in a region of space known as the South Atlantic Anomaly is “the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth…  The flux exceeds the galactic [cosmic ray] antiproton flux by three orders of magnitude at the current solar minimum.”  This is potentially sufficient to support the use of antiprotons as a fuel for the spacecraft of the future, an idea NASA has already explored in theory.

[Image courtesy of NASA/MSFC]

Source: The Astrophysical Journal Letters [arXiv]

Visit Front Side Bus for the latest in gadgets, technology and science.

Read more at Frontsidebus