NASA says--Thunderstorms create ANTIMATTER! Newslink

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Holy s%^t!

Antimatter caught streaming from thunderstorms on Earth

It deepens a mystery about terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs - sparks of light that are estimated to occur 500 times a day in thunderstorms on Earth. They are a complex interplay of light and matter whose origin is poorly understood.

“One of the great things about the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor is that it detects flashes of gamma rays all across the cosmic scale,” explained Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at Nasa.

“We see gamma-ray bursts, one of the most distant phenomena we know about in the Universe, we see bursts from soft gamma-ray repeaters in our galaxy, flashes of gamma rays from solar flares, our solar neighbourhood - and now we’re also seeing gamma rays from thunderstorms right here on Earth,” she told BBC News.

“We expected to see TGFs; they had been seen by the GBM’s predecessor,” Dr McEnery explained.

“But what absolutely intrigues us is the discovery that TGFs produce not just gamma rays but also produce positrons, the antimatter equivalent to electrons.”

I’ll be dipped.:eek:

[Ike_Witt]

Well, where did you think that the 1.21 gigawatts came from?

[billfish678]

Shocking news. It came out the blue like a bolt of lightning. I am thunderstruck I tells ya. The potential implications are sky high. I wonder how much the taxpayers were charged for this pi in the sky stuff?

[fuzzypickles]

@billfish678

Shocking news. It came out the blue like a bolt of lightning. I am thunderstruck I tells ya. The potential implications are sky high. I wonder how much the taxpayers were charged for this pi in the sky stuff?

Hey man, don’t hog all the classic puns. I was just charging up, so there’s no need to steal my thunder.

[billfish678]

@fuzzypickles

Hey man, don’t hog all the classic puns. I was just charging up, so there’s no need to steal my thunder.

I’ll let you have the clap…

[Boyo_Jim]

So when will the earth explode? I’m putting my money on 2012.

[Magiver]

@Boyo_Jim

So when will the earth explode? I’m putting my money on 2012.

Given how politically charged the election has become maybe a little Armageddon might be a nice change of pace.

[user_hostile]

This news is electrifying!

[Koxinga]

If they can figure out how the natural process works, would this put antimatter generation within reach as a usable power source? (No puns, sorry.)

[Boyo_Jim]

@user_hostile

This news is electrifying!

Really? I found it an anticlimax.

[fuzzypickles]

@Koxinga

If they can figure out how the natural process works, would this put antimatter generation within reach as a usable power source? (No puns, sorry.)

Particle colliders like the LHC have been creating antimatter for years. Generating positrons is simple – capturing & storing them is the hard part.

[It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery]

Antimatter? Does it really matter?

[Ale]

@fuzzypickles

Particle colliders like the LHC have been creating antimatter for years. Generating positrons is simple – capturing & storing them is the hard part.

That and it takes a ton of energy to make a speck of antimatter.

[pravnik]

Joke all you want, but this is no small matter.

Get it? No small matter? Get it?

[blindboyard]

What is mind, no matter; what is matter, never mind. – Frankie Howerd, Carry on Doctor