reply to post by Common Good
Lightning Turns out there's antimatter in there. Who knew?
Whilst carrying out its normal workaday duties of scanning corners of the universe billions of light years from Earth, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space
Telescope has made a discovery that hits decidedly closer to home: lightning strikes on Earth carry the signature of antimatter.
Gamma ray flashes detected in terrestrial storms were of the decaying-positron variety, indicating not only that lightning can produce the antimatter
equivalent of electrons, but also that somehow the electric field normally produced by a lightning storm somehow reversed.
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Science, Clay Dillow, antimatter, Fermi space telescope, gamma rays, gamma-ray bursts, lightning, physics, positronsThe 17 gamma-ray flashes picked up
by the orbiting Fermi occurred just before, during and right after lightning strikes during two recent storms, marking the first time positrons have
been observed in lightning. For now, the discovery raises more questions than it answers: how did the orientation of the electric field get turned on
its head? What does the existence of antimatter particles in lightning mean?
Gamma-ray flashes have been observed in lightning flashes before, as energetic electrons moving toward observational spacecraft slowed down, but the
unique signature found by Fermi has researchers puzzled. Modelers are trying to work out exactly what happened during the strikes to reverse the
electric field.
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.5 Comments
link to this commentanimemaster11/11/09 at 4:22 pm
That's cooler than xray tape.
..link to this commentsteve2811/11/09 at 6:56 pm
If it were possible to re create the conditions that cause this strange occurance could it be possible to generate positrons on demand , what would
that lead to ? Ok back to my collection of star trek dvds to get the answers , lol .
..link to this commentAzorus11/12/09 at 6:14 am
Still waiting for my lighting gun. Which when created will quickly be named Antimatter gun!
..link to this comment jaydub11/12/09 at 10:39 am
lol @steve28
my thoughts exactly.
..link to this commentpersondude11/14/09 at 9:56 am
SCIENTISTS KNOW TOO MUCH! SOON THE WHOLE WORLD WILL GO INTO A STATE OF PANIC BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY THINK IS "LIFE-CHANGING"
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