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Article: Penned-in positrons: captured positrons create the first antimatter plasma on earth.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 11, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PENNED-IN POSITRONS
Though rare on Earth, plasmas are actually the most common form of matter in the universe. Inside a star, heat and overcrowding wrench electrons from their orderly positions around atoms, creating a sea of negatively charged electrons floating among positively charged nuclei. This stuff of stars is a plasma. Scientists have learned to make a variety of plasmas in the laboratory, including ones consisting of many varieties of atomic nuclei with electrons, and even ones with just electrons. Now a team of physicists reports creating for the first time a plasma made out of the electron's antimatter equivalent -- the positron.
Physicists ...