Questions tagged [antimatter]
For questions about the material composed of antiparticles (which have the opposite charge from the equivalent particles of regular matter), its uses and role in the universe, and its interaction with regular matter.
39
questions
16
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9answers
2k views
Methods and Feasibility of Antimatter Mining?
Say 200-300 years in the future, humankind has colonized much of the solar system, using a combination of laser thermal drives and solid-core nuclear rockets (fusion never really panned out). ...
3
votes
3answers
299 views
Is antimatter boosted nuclear weapon theoretically possible?
Are there any fundamental obstacles to using a nuclear explosion as a trigger for antimatter generation and thus considerably increasing the yield?
6
votes
0answers
275 views
The great battery swap [closed]
An alien contra-organization wants to spur the development of Earth to help humans in the near-future in presence of a prime-directive like law. They cannot establish actual contact, so they do the ...
5
votes
3answers
109 views
Antimatter internal combustion engine
I have an idea for an extremely crackpot engine design for a future society I may incorporate into my story.
What would happen is individual antihydrogen molecules injected into the center of carbon ...
6
votes
1answer
160 views
Feasibility of an Antimatter-Catalysed Ram Augmented Interstellar Rocket (AC-RAIR)
A fictional starship that I am designing functions via a form of Bussard ramjet that uses hydrogen from the interstellar medium as reaction mass, not as fuel.
In order to accelerate the propellant, ...
2
votes
2answers
140 views
How can I destroy a planet with antimatter?
So I found the base of these pesky rebels on this planet and I am tasked with destroying the planet to eliminate the rebels once and for all. Unfortunately, my death star has malfunctioned and has ...
27
votes
6answers
7k views
Would one atom of antimatter be lethal if annihilated inside the brain?
I am dealing with a dystopian story that tries to come up with some kind of total surveillence or control from higher authorities.
The authorities threaten to kill those who disobey them by simply ...
16
votes
2answers
2k views
How would an antimatter reactor actually work? [closed]
In a far future, antimatter is used for energy storage: Huge space stations with powerful solar arrays orbit the sun a bit inside Mercurys orbit, using the energy to create small amounts of anti-...
29
votes
30answers
7k views
If antimatter were common starship fuel, what could prevent it from being commonly weaponized? [duplicate]
My scenario involves a high sci-fi setting, where starships are readily available to civilians with sufficient qualifications and money. Most civilians would not be fueling ships with antimatter ...
-2
votes
1answer
143 views
Reason to stay on a doomed spaceship [closed]
For plot reasons, the captain must stay on the ship while his crew (including his wife) get in escape pods and leave. Unfortunately we haven't found a satisfying reason for this yet.
What engine or ...
1
vote
3answers
811 views
How much energy would be released in a collision of planets of matter & antimatter?
Let's assume that the Earth has a body of equivalent mass directed at it that is made up purely of antimatter. This antimatter is held back in a containment bubble I created that moves it towards the ...
2
votes
4answers
393 views
How to produce enough power to create a pair of proton-antiproton?
I've recently discovered something great: the Schwinger effect. It says that if you concentrate enough power thanks to laser into a single point in space, it will spawn a pair of proton and antiproton....
-6
votes
1answer
193 views
How could we produce electricity thanks to antimatter?
Imagine we had an easy way to produce antimatter, we could use it for interstellar travel, deadly weapons or more; but I've thought: How could we use it to produce electricity?
As Antimatter ...
7
votes
1answer
113 views
What conditions could create a planet that has higher amounts of antimatter in its radiation belt?
In the science fiction setting I'm working on, one of the factions are supposed to be using naturally occurring antimatter because the systems they reside in have sufficient natural sources of it.
I'...
3
votes
1answer
111 views
Manipulating decaying positron-emitting isotopes for positron “mining”
In a previous question, it was established that antimatter could be "mined" through positron-emitting isotopes.
By gathering positrons from decaying positron-emitting isotopes (potassium-40 and ...
2
votes
3answers
212 views
Energy gain/loss of using synthesized antimatter as a fuel?
Setting aside concerns of containment for now; how much energy would it take to create antimatter? And how much of it would we get back using it as a fuel in a matter-antimatter reactor?
What I'm ...
4
votes
6answers
631 views
Is it realistic to have a moon made of antimatter?
I have an idea for a Sci-Fi story that involves a planet with a third moon made entirely of antimatter, before I delve further into this concept, I would appreciate input on
how to make this ...
24
votes
7answers
5k views
Orbital Bombardment with Anti Matter
I am trying to figure out the feasibility of using Anti Matter to bombard the surface of a planet from a position in space.
My gut feeling is that its not very feasible. Wouldnt the Anti Matter ...
5
votes
3answers
260 views
An anti matter planet behaving like a star
In your space journey your ship systems have spotted an unusual source of gamma rays: it's the size and the mass of a planet and it has a pulsating behaviour.
Further observations shows that you are ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
How do you communicate with antimatter beings?
So aliens have arrived in the solar system.
They have faster-than-light travel technology and the ability to handwave away the supposed causality violations that such an invention causes
They're ...
-2
votes
3answers
289 views
Safely shooting antimatter
Lets say I have this nice gun which can shoot a certain amount of antimatter. After hearing answers about why that won't work, I added a magical coating to the projectile making sure the antimatter ...
8
votes
6answers
817 views
Could antimatter be used as the propellant in a gun?
And not some big space gun a mile wide, I'm talking more like "could you pack a nanogram of antihydrogen into a shotgun shell or rifle casing and fire a bullet with it?"
A few conditions and ...
26
votes
18answers
7k views
Can spacecraft defend against antimatter weapons? How?
Here is what we know:
We have the means to create stable antimatter
We can direct it in a beam
It can travel nearly as fast as light with ease
Antimatter and matter combine in dangerous ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
How small can you make an antimatter generator?
Reasonably speaking, I mean. I know that, theoretically at least, there probably isn't any reason you couldn't build a crude generator the size of a bacterium, but if we extrapolate from today's ...
-2
votes
1answer
194 views
Accelerating a massive spaceship
How much wattage would you need to accelerate a four petaton spaceship by 1g for a year? This should be about enough to reach near light speed, which is perfect for interstellar cruising, but I'm ...
6
votes
4answers
857 views
How to make antimatter batteries safe
Assuming the wars of the far, far future aren't either fought exclusively by unmanned spacecraft/robots/drones or in ways so incomprehensible to us that comparisons are meaningless, the only foolproof ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Anti-matter containment
I've been looking into anti-matter and a relatively realistic way to contain it through gravity in my story. I'm probably incorrect in the theoretical physics of the idea but, I'm imagining that the ...
5
votes
4answers
479 views
How can I make an anti-matter “rod” warhead for interplanetary delivery?
In the story I'm writing, a civil war is fought between Earth and Mars. Although there is a huge orbital and ground war campaign, conditions deteriorate to the point where Earth decides to unleash the ...
0
votes
3answers
225 views
Could We Restart Mars's Core With Antimatter?
Forget about how we get it there, some kind of top secret experiment on mars gone wrong in all the right ways.
If somehow Mars's core was mixed with some amount of antimatter, and assuming 100% of it ...
3
votes
2answers
357 views
If Earth was converted into energy by antimatter-matter collision would the energy “destroy” the observable universe?
If half the earth was made antimatter and contacted the other half all at once, would the resulting energy be enough to "destroy" the observable universe?
I did some math based on the mass of the ...
1
vote
1answer
211 views
A spacecraft the size of Apollo 11's lunar module, composed of antimatter, around a normal star
After writing this question, I came up with a new question.
Consideration
The considerations are mostly similar to the linked question (reading it is highly encouraged, as I am trying to post as ...
6
votes
3answers
968 views
Antimatter planet on normal matter star
Consideration
For the sake of argument, please assume the following:
The planet in question is around the size of Earth
The planet may contain native intelligent life, artificially engineered
The ...
2
votes
3answers
319 views
How could a bad random number generator explain baryon asymmetry?
How can a character explain baryon asymmetry (there is more matter than antimatter) by the universe being a simulation with a slightly imbalanced random number generator being employed at the point ...
6
votes
3answers
659 views
How can a dragon utilize antimatter in combat?
Frankly speaking, I haven't come up with a design for my dragon; however, I want to design a dragon that can feast on the energy released from the constant bombardment of cosmic rays (either solar or ...
5
votes
2answers
696 views
Antimatter Storage
Is it possible to contain similarly charged particles in a magnetic field or traps, in generally large scale (say, all of them have positive charge), and could be utilized as power reserves quite ...
7
votes
4answers
819 views
If we had easier access to antimatter, how could we use it?
Antimatter annihilation is the best source of energy per weight. However, antimatter is not readily available anywhere within reachable distance, it's insanely difficult to produce and contain.
...
2
votes
8answers
13k views
How much antimatter would we need in order to wipe out all humans, eradicate all animals and blow up the Earth?
Supposing we had many thousands of antimatter bombs (they can be detonated in many different locations), how much total antimatter would we need in order to wipe out all humans on Earth?
Supposing we ...
3
votes
4answers
484 views
Sections of the universe made of anti matter
Is it possible to have giant sections of the universe made of antimatter? If so, what would the borders between matter and antimatter look like?
27
votes
5answers
3k views
Feasibility of anti-matter as a fuel
Now, taking out the cost to produce/collect it, assume somehow we perfected a formula or find a natural source (because that is currently very prohibitive), how feasible would be to use antimatter as ...
