Three minutes to talk about popular science
Crafting 1 gram of antimatter costs up to 62$5 trillion. What exactly is antimatter?
There is a lot of antimatter in the universe, and once it comes into contact with our world, the two cancel each other out。Humans have succeeded in creating antimatter at an unimaginably high cost. What exactly is antimatter?What's the point of studying it?
Our world is made of matter, as the name suggests, the so-calledAntimatter is the opposite of what is in our world。In fact, this is not just a hypothesis, but a real thing.
When it comes to antimatter, we have to mention the British theoretical physicist Dirac. He linked the Schrödinger equation to the theory of relativity and came up with itDirac's equation
Initially, everyone rejoiced at the equationHowever, as the research deepened, we found a very serious problem that subverted common sense, that is, according to the Dirac equation, there is a negative energy state of electrons.
Electrons in the traditional sense are negatively charged, moving at high speed around positively charged protons, protons and neutrons make up the nucleus, and together with electrons, they make up an atom.
Whereas, according to the Dirac equation, there is a negative energy state of electrons, that is, there are positively charged electrons. According to the theory of physics,Positively charged electrons can only move around negatively charged protons, together with antineutrons, constitutes an antiatom.
When the antiatoms are combined, they form antimatter. This is a form of composition that is completely opposite to the substance of our world, which can also be called a mirror form.
According to the conjectures of scientists,When matter meets antimatter, both are annihilatedIt's like half the world disappears after Thanos snaps his fingers.
So it can be said thatAntimatter is the most dangerous thing in the world, killing people invisibly, really encountered the end result can only be a bizarre disappearance, the kind that becomes an unsolved case.
In 1932, American scientist Anderson discovered antielectrons through experiments, and in 1955, Italian physicist Segre and American physicist Chamberlain discovered antiprotons for the first time.
In 1956, American scientist Cocker discovered antineutrons, antimatter is confirmed to be real. It wasn't until 1995 that CERN succeeded in creating an antihydrogen atom for the first time, demonstrating that humans have the ability to make antimatter.
However, this ability is also limited to the laboratory. This set of experimental equipmentAfter 14 years of uninterrupted efforts, a total of 100 trillion antihydrogen atoms have been made
The amount seems unusually large, but in terms of weight, it is completely negligible, because they are only 10-10 grams. Calculate the cost of this experimentIt costs up to 62. to craft 1 gram of antimatter$5 trillion is one of the most expensive substances in the world
As far as we ordinary people are concerned, we feel that antimatter is just like that, and it seems that there is no other use for it except to make the matter of our world disappear out of thin air, but in fact,If humanity truly controls antimatter, it will be of great significance for future development
Because of the peculiarities of antimatter, in the eyes of scientists,It is the ultimate energy source for humanityYou must know that the nuclear fusion projects that are now being worked on by major powers have not been able to get the title of "ultimate energy", which shows the importance of antimatter energy.
So to speak,If there is a hierarchy of civilizations, then the civilization of the human world is likely to be the lowest civilization。With our current technology, nuclear energy is the highest level of energy, and as for better nuclear fusion, it is still in the thousand-second experiment.
For higher civilizations, nuclear energy is to them, just like lighters are to us, it may be used in ordinary times, but it is definitely not called energy.
Now we see American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which feel very advanced. ButIn the face of antimatter energy, nuclear energy is only slag。Why is antimatter energy so good?
First of all,Antimatter energy conversion efficiency is particularly high。Only about 1 to 3 percent of the nuclear energy we currently use is converted into energy during the fission process, and the rest is lost. In the process of collision and annihilation between antimatter and matter, a large amount of energy can be released, and the conversion rate can reach 100%.
What's more, antimatter energy does not produce a large amount of waste after use, as nuclear energy does. After the antimatter collides with matter, it returns to nothingness at the same time, leaving no trace.
Secondly,Antimatter energy can power spacecraft, propelling them to achieve faster speeds。At present, rockets and other spacecraft still rely mainly on fossil energy, and the large size and weight limit the speed of rockets.
If antimatter is used, the weight and mention of energy can be drastically reduced, and the output power is higher. According to scientists' calculations, spacecraft that use antimatter energy,The top speed can reach 70% of the speed of light
Such a speed means,Humans can travel from Earth to Mars in 45 minutes, instead of more than half a year now. Near-Earth planets achieve a "one-hour traffic circle"., the scope of human exploration of the universe will be greatly increased.
The closest Proxima Centauri to Earth is about 4The distance of 2 light years is simply unattainable at the speed of today's spacecraft, and with the antimatter energy spacecraft, humans can reach this area in 6 yearsInterstellar leapfrogging made easy.
In science fiction ** and movies, warp engines, jump engines, etc., which often appear, basically use antimatter as the propulsion energy, and it is impossible for human beings to reach such a speed with the energy they currently have. Mastered by antimatter energy, interstellar travel is not a dream.
Third,Antimatter can be used as an energy source, and of course it can also be used as a source, just like nuclear energy。In many American blockbusters, antimatter bombs have been mentioned. Only a few grams of antimatter are needed, and after detonation, it is enough to blow up a large city, and the large amount of energy released when antimatter and matter are annihilated is far more powerful than nuclear bombs such as hydrogen bombs.
In any case,Antimatter is an important energy source for mankind in the future, but with the current level of science and technology, there are still many difficulties in realizing the large-scale application of antimatterThere is a long way to go.
First of all,Antimatter preparation and preservation are very difficult。When scientists discovered antimatter, they were all excited, but in the process of trying to make it, they found it difficult. Whether a particle collider or a laser is used, the preparation efficiency is very low.
Just like when CERN spent 14 years to prepare 10-10 grams to the power, it is really true"The operation is as fierce as a tiger, and when I look back, it is only 15".
The unit after this 15 is not grams, but micrograms (1 gram = 1 million micrograms). This bit of antimatter, let alone being used as a ** or driving a spaceship, is difficult to even boil a glass of water.
Second, if you want to make antimatter now, you need to invest a huge amount of energy. The energy produced by the prepared antimatter energy is not enough to compensate for the energy consumed in the production of antimatter. It consumes a lot of energy and a lot of money, which is the difficulty in the current antimatter manufacturing process.
Third,Antimatter is equally difficult to preserve. From the previous explanation, we can also understand that once antimatter encounters matter, it will collide and annihilate. Therefore, after the antimatter is created, it can only be stored in a special container for a few seconds, and it will disappear instantly if it collides with the wall of the cup.
The property of "ending up together" once exposed to it is a headache for scientists, and it has also led to a great hindrance to the research and application of antimatter. Under the current technical conditions, it is difficult to even preserve, let alone use it for energy, fuel or **
Although antimatter has many benefits, if the above few obstacles cannot be solved, antimatter is doomed to have no chance with modern humans. However, with the advancement of science and technology, antimatter will definitely be tamed by humans and become one of the most important aids in the exploration of the universe.
In the entire universe, antimatter exists in large quantities, for example, when a stream of high-energy particles shuttles through the universe, antimatter can be released.
According to the characteristics of antimatter, once it encounters matter, it will collide with each other and disappear, so there can be no matter in the universe at all, but the reality is that our entire earth's biosphere is alive and well, does this prove that there is no antimatter?
Actually,Although there is antimatter in the universe, its amount is much less than matterThe number of the two is not symmetrical, and this is one of the manifestations of cosmic asymmetry.
It is precisely because the amount of matter is much higher than that of antimatter that our world and many galaxies in the universe have a chance to exist, and finally form a magnificent universe.
However, there are also scientists who speculateIs antimatter concentrated in a particular region, and then an antimatter universe is formed there, that is, a universe diametrically opposed to ours
Since life can form in our universe, does life also exist in the antimatter universe?And then also working on matter?But in their case, maybe call our matter "antimatter".
The universe is so big that we are all-encompassing, and we are only exploring a small part of it, the vast universe, there are still many secrets waiting for us to discover.
With the advancement of science and technology, technologies that are difficult to achieve now will become very common technologies in the future!Just as people in the past longed to be able to fly in the sky like birds, but now they can not only fly in the sky, but even fly out of the sky. The ancients used to describe the moon in their imagination, but now the moon is no longer mysterious to us. Believe in the future, and the same is true for antimatter!