05. What is anti-matter in space - if nothing is something, how can something be nothing? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

Anti-matter is definitely something! The "anti" in anti-matter should perhaps be changed to "opposite" because anti-matter often has the opposite physical characteristics from matter. Matter and anti-matter can both be formed from pure energy, often from a very, very large explosion or collision. Just like matter is made up of atoms that contain protons (with positive electrical charge) and electrons (with negative electrical charge), anti-matter is made up of anti-protons (-) and anti-electrons (+), also called positrons. Anti-matter exists in space near places that are very hot or very high in energy like exploding stars or black holes. People have made antimatter in physics labs on Earth as well by accelerating parts of atoms to very high speeds and allowing them to collide head-on! The problem with anti-matter is that when it touches matter they both disappear, leaving only energy behind. So if you have anti-matter and matter and mix them together, you can generate power. This process is a possible way to get very large spaceships moving very quickly. An example in science fiction of a spaceship that uses anti-matter and matter in this way is the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek.

Answer provided by Luke Keller, Ph.D.

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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