PAMELA Spacecraft Finds a Belt of ANTIMATTER Around the Earth

reply to post by Xeven

True true Xeven, which then makes me(the conspiracy side) the tech will be suppressed < shakes fist >!
My understanding too is that this stuff is highly volatile. I wonder if there is any dangerous byproduct created from the utilization of it?

spec

reply to post by TLomon

I wonder if this is related to the strange pixies and sprites they have photographed in the upper atmosphere?

Not sure who would no the answer to that one TL, so I would say...maybe?
spec

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

Its just protection.

Well that's an interesting angle O, do ya think it is intentional or circumstantial? Guess that's the slippery slope of a creator/divine being or force eh?

www.bbc.co.uk...

A fairly new BBC article discussing Pamelas findings.

I was going to post as a new thread, but search turned this one up.
Can I just ask, since I'm questioning it myself... Where does this leave us with the moon landings? Surely if the Van Allen belt was previously held as the biggest cause for doubt upon the moon landings, then the discovery of antiprotons would only make it all the more unlikely for astronauts to have casually glided on through? I may be wrong but I'm sure one of you kind folk will swiftly boot it in to touch if I'm wide of the mark. .

Peace.

Originally posted by Hypernova86
www.bbc.co.uk...

A fairly new BBC article discussing Pamelas findings.

I was going to post as a new thread, but search turned this one up.
Can I just ask, since I'm questioning it myself... Where does this leave us with the moon landings? Surely if the Van Allen belt was previously held as the biggest cause for doubt upon the moon landings, then the discovery of antiprotons would only make it all the more unlikely for astronauts to have casually glided on through? I may be wrong but I'm sure one of you kind folk will swiftly boot it in to touch if I'm wide of the mark.

.

Peace.

Saw this very article linked elsewhere, and if you noticed the link after the article, the antiproton flux was suspected to exist a long time ago, and a NASA funded study proposes the antiprotons could be collected for a space based fuel depot for antiproton propulsion in the future.

The study was submitted in April 2006 by a team headed by;

Jim Bickford would like to acknowledge the numerous contributions from the people and
organizations that enabled or directly contributed to the success of the phase I program. Funding
was provided by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) under a contract administered
by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).

The PDF link;

a report for Nasa's Institute for Advanced Concepts.

Here are some illustrations from the report.
Artist's concept.

reply to post by Illustronic



If you could passively collect antimatter would you have free energy? I am not sure how comfortable I would be with an antimatter collection device in orbit. What happens if it deorbits while full of antimatter ? My guess is that would be bad.

reply to post by iforget


I'm sure it would have the reserves to power it to a stable orbit.

The whole antiproton flux mentioned is stronger the closer it is to earth's ionosphere. The further up you go, the more dispersed the antiprotons are. This has existed as long as the earth has had a magnetosphere, and a natural decay/annihilation of matter. Studies began in the 1950's speculating the existence of antiproton flux jet in the doughnut hole of the Van Allen belts. I'm sure the Apollo trajectory mission specialists were aware of it also but the understanding was obscure, they were concern with minimizing the radiation exposure of the belts to the astronauts, I don't think it was understood what/if the antiproton exposure would/could do.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

b0ll0x b0ll0x b0llox b0ll0x b0ll0x go back to school

wow how can people be so ignorant, don't they teach this in high schools any more? and you call yourselves intelligent people and then state matter-of-factly all thiss b0ll0x. how can you even think it is theoretical? it was discovered in the 30s, not long after Dirac postulated its existence

reply to post by repressed


there is always more to learn than any one person could ever hope to know there is no shame in being willing to do so

reply to post by iforget


theres a difference between learning and going on a forum spouting b0ll0x as if you are an expert. not only that but s/he says it is lies, and unfortunately most people will not read much more beyond that

you may notice i am not arguing with everyone on this thread, indeed there are a lot of intelligent answers here i am happy to see and read, but some people here seem to think they are the new mini-einsteins and that life is science fiction and have come up with some delusional postulates and are adamant that that is the reality and they need to be confronted, and unfortunately i am the one being confrontational

Anti matter engines, energy sources and weaponry are still a long way off in the future
because we lack the tech to produce levels of it needed for such things.But I read an
interesting article that says 1 milligram of it could power a probe to pluto and back in
around 1 year. The implications of that are simply amazing, we have found a naturaly
ocuring source of anti matter right on our doorstep, we just need to work out how to
harvest and store it in small amounts and we will open up solar system exploration
in a way undreamed of before. The technical challenges of doing this are difficult
but not beyond us at all, scientists at the Lhc recently contained antimatter for 16
minutes and are continuing to perfect the technique, the biggest challenge will
be to harvest it, but im sure there is a way

The antiprotons lie sandwiched between the inner and outer Van Allen belts (in red) around the Earth

Thanks for the replies everyone, and I found a bit more info, that of course leaves me with more questions. Thanks Illustronic for the supplemental info on advanced concepts.

The find, described in Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms theoretical work that predicted the Earth's magnetic field could trap antimatter

So this has always been, according to Illustronic's input, but has the amount/frequency increased recently, and if so why? Is it just the magnetosphere that traps/attracts this stuff? How does the suns energy and fluctuations affect it?

The researchers say there may be enough to implement a scheme using antimatter to fuel future spacecraft.

Would be the ultimate power source huh? Would this be better than nuclear powered space crafts? I thought that anti-matter was rare, in the sense of there has not been enough discovered to consider using it long term, has this changed now?

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 "annihilate" in a flash of light.

www.bbc.co.uk...
www.niac.usra.edu...
What happens when space debris or asteroids come in contact with this stuff? Are there explosions? If there is a recent growing increase of anti-matter in our atmosphere, does that increase any volatility beyond a "flash of light" that we should be concerned with?
Also, are there any applications terrestrially here on Earth that this stuff could be used for, or is that an impractical assumption?

spec

just for fun lets let her talk about it:

reply to post by iforget

just for fun lets let her talk about it:

I like your attitude iforget!

well, as we have it nothing happened. Actually just posting this to see if my avatar works, figured a dead thread would be a good place

AHA it works.

reply to post by Techata


hmpf I am still here and alive