Antimatter Lightning Discovered (On Earth!)

Antimatter Lightning!  We're going to do our best, but nothing we could possibly write will be as awesome as the fact that's real and on Earth.  In fact, nothing you ever read for the rest of your life will be as awesome as that, and it's only the way human memory degrades with time that'll let you ever get excited about anything ever again.  

Like all the most discoveries, it was unexpected. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope was launched to examine the universe for the stupendously powerful processes that produce gamma ray bursts, from black hole jets to the effects of dark matter itself, only to find blasts coming from behind it. From Earth.

That large storms can produce gamma rays isn't news, but the surprise - and that's "Surprise" with a capital "Antimatter Annihilating Tiny Bits Of The Atmosphere In The Most Energetic Reaction Known To Science" - was that some of the Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGFs) were of the exact energy level which could only be produced by positron annihilation: anti-electrons appearing, meeting and electron, and exploding.  (And you'll never see a TGiFs without thinking of how awesome science is ever again).

How can this happen?  No-one knows.  Michael Briggs, research scientist at the University of Alabama, first announced the results at the 2009 Fermi Symposium and is currently preparing a paper on the subject.  After that it'll be a race to see who can explain the events - if a slightly less explosive battle than you'd expect with antimatter and lightning bolts involved.

Luke McKinney.

Antimatter detected in lightning 

Comments

[Andrew T]

meh...

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[lulzhai]

Very poorly written. Go take a journalism class at the local community college.

[Amuro Ray]

I knew this would happen, since there are various strange things like atmosphere's dwarfs and ball lighting... I think that we need to see more nature first before waste a lot of money in research and colliders, even when nature is not a ideal enviorement to take readings... but some people need profits...

Luke, take air before write... I speak Spanish and there are some grammar nazis here... After all, Americans are very troll and sarcastic like lulzhai... Take a class of journalism is a good idea, but please try to no offend others lulzhai, you're just showing us what you are not well, that's the reason why I study and practice Buddhism, we need to exercise our Spirit, not only have a lot of knowledge in our heads.

Go Science !, go Science !, go Science ! ^_^

[KGE]

This is awesome... can you provide more links about this story.

[observr]

When the phrase ''black hole'' appeared I stopped reading. Science has long been devoured from logic and common sense. When mathematical 'physicists' took over they are still trying to explain magic with numbers, hell, they are telling the audience it's all about numbers now, but no longer the atoms and forces that make up the Real world. No wonder cosmology and physics are stagnating, while biology is flourishing.

[Ernie]

The article is good but the spelling and usage errors really detract. A couple of minutes of proofreading would have made a world of difference.

[Ariel]

If you want your audience to be excited by this, maybe you should try proof reading or taking an English class.

[Readerr]

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2009/11/06/antimatter-signature-detected-in-lightning.html

[KGE]

Geez, this is a tough crowd. Lay off the snark people.

[Umair]

This is indeed poor writing. excessive use of the word "awesome" lost its meaning and now i am searching for this story to read elsewhere.

[Jason]

there are no spelling errors in this post

[Jmat]

Regardless of how this post is written, it does get the point across. You critics need to get a life!

[matt]

observr you do realize that biology is ever changing and cosmology and physics has always been there, and is just yet to be discovered. However, in biology things are always evolving and changing.

[eric]

"When the phrase ''black hole'' appeared I stopped reading. Science has long been devoured from logic and common sense. When mathematical 'physicists' took over they are still trying to explain magic with numbers, hell, they are telling the audience it's all about numbers now, but no longer the atoms and forces that make up the Real world. No wonder cosmology and physics are stagnating, while biology is flourishing."

Biology is flourishing because they are starting to use more mathematical models, improvements in technology that mainly came from physics in the first place, and Physics is not stagnating. Observr, you should probably get some facts straight before you go and be stupid. And stagnation in physics, which there isn't since there are discoveries nearly every day, could only be barred by lack of technology, which is also improving at an incredible rate. Since some questions, and contradictory theories can only be settled by observations, which are of effects we do not have the technology to observe yet.

[sam magus]

Hey friend, Your post has a lot of errors- missing words, bad syntax, etc, not to mention kinda poor writing. No offense meant- this is how most people's writing looks BEFORE THEY CORRECT ERRORS! So may I suggest you take the extra time to correct your own text before publishing it for all eternity on the net?
SM

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

Why is it so surprising that " normal matter " & " anti - matter " can exist in the same environment ? I think a lot of people have been exposed to science - fiction shows that teach if our universe were to somehow intrude on an " anti - matter " mirror universe, ( sometimes depicted by 2 twins, one of matter, the other " anti - matter " attempting to shake hands. ) that everything would cancel itself out.

Just like " mini - black holes ", there should be no reason why small, transient amounts of anti - matter couldn't exist on an Earth of positively - charged matter.

[nemo]

what the fuck !?

[JC]

How is this happening? It's happening because your atmosphere has been sprayed for over 20 years with ionizing metallic salts that have turned the entire atmosphere into a plasma. The air you breathe is mostly an electrified gas now. Don't believe me? Do some research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxNeoXkL0mM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdtLTyNOB0A
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2815320198655156407&ei=TsT9SrO2HZ3eqALon8iFBQ

[Dan]

Could be related to a theory proposed by Greenberg and Greiner, in their August 1982 Physics Today article, Search for the Sparking of the Vacuum? What they proposed is that the static electric field near a superheavy nucleus (a "catastrophe" at Z up around 137) might pull out electrons and positrons out of the vacuum. (Actually, from a stability point of view, you need about 173 "localized" protons?) So I don't know, could lightening be somehow mimicking these enormous electric fields and "sucking" out positronium states out of the vacuum? Or does it just set up overcritical field conditions? Who knows? The "vacuum" could be a very high energy filled realm, as many have suggested.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

Dan:

" Nature abhors a ' vacuum ' " indeed. Vacuums can be full of all matter of exotic things, including microscopic quantities of anti - matter released in Earth's atmosphere by lightning.

If we could find ways to " freeze " & analyze them,( as in some manner of storage ) that would be beyond fantastic.

[dirk alan]

being a contrarian i embrace this anti matter crapola - stuff happens get over it. cheers.

[josh]

Its fascinating evil cosmic monkey because anti matter, while tiny amounts can be created in the lab, has never been observed in nature before.

And the person who said physics started gonig downhill when they began to make mathematical models to describe physical relationships....please finish high school or don't comment on anything in a technical field.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

Josh:

I seem to recall reading about anti - matter being created in a laboratory environment SOMEWHERE. I wonder how they stored it - Magnetic containment, perhaps.

Maybe anti - matter exists elsewhere naturally in the universe ( Dark Matter ? ).