Why Antimatter is the Most Expensive This on Earth

deep in the heart of the universe

there's a mysterious and powerful force

hidden waiting to be unlocked it's a

force that could change the world as we

know it and it's called anti-matter

let's discover what this thing is and

how we could use it to turn our lives

upside down

antimatter is the science fiction

fantasy come to life you may have heard

about it in Star Trek and Star Wars but

it's actually a real thing that

scientists have been studying for over a

century

but what is it exactly and how is it

different from regular matter

well let's start with the basics

you probably know that atoms are made up

of tiny particles called protons

neutrons and electrons

these particles are all made of matter

which is what we're all made of and what

makes up everything around us

and antimatter is just like that but

with a Twist instead of protons

anti-matter atoms have something called

antiprotons

and instead of neutrons they have

anti-neutrons and instead of electrons

they have positrons

almost got you there

basically antimatter is made up of

particles with opposite charge Spin and

other properties of regular matter

while a proton has a positive charge and

an antiproton has a negative charge and

while an electron has a negative charge

an anti-electron also known as a

positron has a positive charge

get it antimatter is kind of like an

evil twin of regular matter it's the

mirror image of everything that we're

all familiar with just like how Batman

has the Joker matter has antimatter

so if you ever wanted to know what it's

like to be in a world where everything

is made of the opposite this would be

your answer

and here's the best part when the

antimatter and matter particles meet

they literally annihilate each other

releasing a tremendous amount of energy

at the same time

this is why scientists believe that it

could provide an almost a limitless

source of power

you might be wondering where is all this

antimatter

why don't we have these anti-particles

flying around and throwing crazy

fireworks after every touch with regular

particles

actually scientists believe that during

the Big Bang matter and antimatter were

created in equal amounts but for some

reason matter came to dominate

so when they started destroying each

other in the end ordinary matter won by

a hair why did it happen we still have

no idea this is one of the biggest

mysteries in physics

all we know is that in the end that's

how we got the universe we know today

makes you wonder what our universe would

look like if regular matter lost but

that's a topic for another day

antimatter is considered to be one of

the most fascinating things in science

it has the potential to revolutionize

our understanding of the universe and of

course maybe a new source of energy

imagine a fuel that could power a

spaceship to the far reaches of the

Galaxy or a power plant that could

provide for an entire city

this is what we can get if we solve this

puzzle

but how was antimatter even discovered

especially considering that there was

nothing left of it at the beginning of

the universe

well scientists were able to discover it

in a very clever way

first of all we have to go back in time

to the early 20th century that's when a

physicist named Paul Dirac predicted the

existence of antimatter

he had a theory that for every particle

of matter in the universe there must be

a corresponding anti-particle this idea

made a huge fuss at the time

but his theory was later confirmed

experimentally

in the 1930s another physicist named

Carl Anderson discovered the positron

the opposite of the electron

it was the first known antimatter

particle

and this discovery was a huge

breakthrough in science scientists soon

discovered more anti-particles and it

sparked a whole new field of study

antimatter physics we're still exploring

it to this day

[Music]

how did we even discover these particles

didn't we just say that there was no

antimatter left after the big bang

well not really there is some antimatter

in space it's just very rare and finding

it is a real treasure hunt

scientists look for antimatter in Space

by searching for cosmic rays that are

made up of antimatter particles

we can also create antimatter in

Laboratories

right now scientists use super cool

machines called particle accelerators

for that

the most famous one is the cern's Large

Hadron Collider which is the biggest

most famous collider in the world

these machines shoot tiny particles at

super high speeds it's kind of like a

cosmic game of billions

when these particles crash into each

other they create antimatter particles

then they use special containers called

Penning traps to store the antimatter

it's like keeping a tiny Supernova in a

jar

now thanks to antimatter we can change

our entire world

scientists have estimated that even just

a tiny bit of it like a couple of ounces

could give you the same energy as

burning millions of gallons of gasoline

so even with a tiniest amount of it you

could power an entire city for a year

it's like holding the power of a star in

your hand

foreign

that's why the scientific Community is

working on ways to use this superpower

to make our lives better

they want to use it to make electricity

like we do with coal and natural gas

in the future it could be used as a

super clean and infinite energy source

they also want to use it to power

spaceships so we can travel to other

planets and stars

imagine a rocket that could take us to

the farthest reaches of the Galaxy

powered by the energy of antimatter even

a small amount of it could power a

spacecraft for a very long time

and that's not all antimatter can also

be used in medicine

scientists are trying to use it to fight

cancer and make images of the inside of

our bodies it's like a super tool that

can help doctors in many ways

in short antimatter is amazing and

powerful and now we just have to figure

out how to use it

and here comes the catch even though

antimatter is super powerful but also

super tricky to make and keep around

takes a lot of energy to make even a

tiny bit of antimatter it requires

incredibly high energy inputs making it

very expensive to produce in large

quantities

there are also some other problems for

example once we've got our tiny amount

of antimatter how do we store it

we can't just put it in a jar

anti-particles are extremely unstable

and they're also attracted to regular

matter like a magnet to a fridge

so scientists have come up with some

clever ways to store it like trapping

them in a vacuum or storing them in some

incredibly strong magnetic fields and

even then it's still a delicate and

expensive process

these and many other reasons explain why

antimatter isn't viable for large-scale

production yet

if you're trying to fill up your car's

gas tank with antimatter it would cost

more than a small country's GDP

but even though creating antimatter is

an enormous scientific challenge the

potential rewards are huge

that's why right now scientists are

working on finding ways to produce and

store it in a more efficient and

cost-effective way

and if they succeed it could become the

new Ultimate Energy Source antimatter

research is a fascinating and rapidly

evolving field and who knows maybe in

the future we'll be able to power our

homes and cars with antimatter

now that would be awesome

that's it for today