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A thin band
of antimatter particles called antiprotons enveloping the Earth has been
spotted for the first time.
 |
| The antiprotons lie sandwiched between the inner and outer Van Allen belts (in red) around the Earth |
The find,
described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that
predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter.
The team
says a small number of antiprotons lie between the Van Allen belts of trapped
"normal" matter.
The
researchers say there may be enough to implement a scheme using antimatter to
fuel future spacecraft.
The
antiprotons were spotted by the Pamela satellite (an acronym for Payload for
Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) - launched in 2006
to study the nature of high-energy particles from the Sun and from beyond our
Solar System - so-called cosmic rays.
These
cosmic ray particles can slam into molecules that make up the Earth's
atmosphere, creating showers of particles.
Many of the
cosmic ray particles or these "daughter" particles they create are
caught in the Van Allen belts, doughnut-shaped regions where the Earth's
magnetic field traps them.
Among
Pamela's goals was to specifically look for small numbers of antimatter
particles among the far more abundant normal matter particles such as protons
and the nuclei of helium atoms.
'Abundant
source'
The new
analysis, described in an online preprint, shows that when Pamela passes
through a region called the South Atlantic Anomaly, it sees thousands of times
more antiprotons than are expected to come from normal particle decays, or from
elsewhere in the cosmos.
 |
| Antiprotons "annihiliate" if they come into contact with normal protons |
The team
says that this is evidence that bands of antiprotons, analogous to the Van
Allen belts, hold the antiprotons in place - at least until they encounter the
normal matter of the atmosphere, when they "annihiliate" in a flash
of light.
The band is
"the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth", said
Alessandro Bruno of the University of Bari, a co-author of the work.
"Trapped
antiprotons can be lost in the interactions with atmospheric constituents,
especially at low altitudes where the annihilation becomes the main loss
mechanism," he told BBC News.
"Above
altitudes of several hundred kilometres, the loss rate is significantly lower,
allowing a large supply of antiprotons to be produced."
Dr Bruno
said that, aside from confirming theoretical work that had long predicted the
existence of these antimatter bands, the particles could also prove to be a
novel fuel source for future spacecraft - an idea explored in a report for Nasa's Institute for Advanced Concepts.
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