Anti-Matter Created During a Thunderstorm

[Dryson]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ogv/Antimatter_Explosions_2.ogv.480p.vp9.webm

I never knew that anti-matter was being created in a thunderstorm. Rather cool to say the least.

But how do we collect anti-matter from a thunderstorm?

If you watch the video you can see that most of the storms are located near the Earth's equators where anti-matter has been detected. Therefore there would have to be a way of re-creating the conditions at the equator that produce thunderstorms where anti-matter is created.

I just wonder if the particulars that make a create a thunderstorm can be condensed into a shorter tube like environment allowing for gamma rays to create more anti-matter over a shorter period of time.

But how do we create an atom that will interact with an electron to create a gamma ray that is deflected off of the atom and then strikes another atom precisely in the same location to create anti-matter?

Could there be planets out there is space right now that produce more anti-matter but not enough to cause the planet to explode?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Here is a link to an actual, legitimate article on the topic.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/11jan_antimatter

 

[NCC-73515]

People use antimatter in living bodies...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography

 

[CorporalCaptain]

People use antimatter in living bodies...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography

"The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radioligand, most commonly fluorine-18, which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule called a radioactive tracer."​

That means that positron emission is not a metabolic function as such.

 

[NCC-73515]

"The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radioligand, most commonly fluorine-18, which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule called a radioactive tracer."​

That means that positron emission is not a metabolic function as such.

...and why would it be?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

...and why would it be?

It wouldn't. But you said that "people use antimatter in living bodies."

 

[NCC-73515]

which has nothing to do with metabolism. people inject it into living patients or test subjects.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

which has nothing to do with metabolism. people inject it into living patients or test subjects.

See, that's not correct either. Antimatter isn't being injected. What's being injected is a radioactive material that emits positrons. The positrons themselves are never "used ... in [peoples'] bodies" in any sense of the terms: the positrons are emitted by the substance that has been injected into the body. The positrons that are detected by a PET scanner literally do not interact with the body in any way.*

* - Well, saying they do not interact in any way is overstating it, but they interact very little by comparison with the interactions that they have with the PET scanner.

 

[NCC-73515]

so they USE the emitted positrons for tracer detection. it's really quite possible we're saying the same thing, you know... XD

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well, it is cool that they put something into your body to emit antimatter from you when you go into a PET scanner!

 

[rahullak]

A thread that has remained open! Bravo!

But really, I had no idea about anti-matter created by lightning. Thanks for the links.

 

[Dryson]

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html

The article is not about anti-matter in the body nor is the thread.

How can anti-matter be collected from a thunderstorm? If science can induce a thunderstorm to produce anti-matter in a confined space then science should be able to captured anti-matter.

How can science induce thunderstorms to produce more anti-matter?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

We don't need to harvest thunderstorms. We can already produce positrons in the lab, for example:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27998860#.Xmfmhqj7SUk

BTW, protons and anti-protons are not created in thunderstorms. To produce protons and anti-protons would require about 1,836 times more energy. An electron is that much less massive than a proton.

 

[Dryson]

Humans also produce anti-matter, as do bananas.

https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2015/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-antimatter

But other antimatter sources are even closer to home. For example, bananas produce antimatter, releasing one positron—the antimatter equivalent of an electron—about every 75 minutes. This occurs because bananas contain a small amount of potassium-40, a naturally occurring isotope of potassium. As potassium-40 decays, it occasionally spits out a positron in the process. Our bodies also contain potassium-40, which means positrons are being emitted from you, too. Antimatter annihilates immediately on contact with matter, so these antimatter particles are very short-lived.

https://www.wired.com/2011/01/lightning-antimatter-physics/

From the articles that I have been reading, the amount of anti-matter present in the Universe far exceeds the current model of volumetric based data regarding anti-matter.

Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning.

The GBM constantly monitors the entire celestial sky above and the Earth below. The GBM team has identified 130 TGFs since Fermi's launch in 2008.

Let's say that each TGF created by a thunderstorm generates, .05 nanograms of anti-matter. Since 2008, Fermi Lab has recorded 130 thunderstorms that have generated on average, 0.5416 nanograms of anti-matter per storm.

Let's say that the Earth has been producing thunderstorms for 3 billion years. Three billion years times 130 equals 390,000,000,000 times that thunderstorms on Earth has produced anti-matter. Therefore, over the last three billion years thunderstorms have produced 19,500,000,000 nanograms or 0.6878 ounces of anti-matter.

Earth would not be the only planet that generates anti-matter due to thunderstorms. Gas giants would be the primary source, with habitable worlds being second in anti-matter production. There are four gas giants in the Sol system. Le's say that Jupiter and Saturn produce .085 nanograms of anti-matter each, along with Neptune and Uranus each producing .075 nanograms of anti-matter every TGF. Using the Earth model of 3 billion years times 130 TGF we have an additional 420 times each year that anti-matter is produced within the Sol system, 550 total including Earth. Over 3 billion years , there has been 1.650 trillion TGF's, multiplied by the total amount of anti-matter each planet produces gives us 528,000,000 nanograms of anti-matter or 528 milligrams. The amount of matter that Earth and the four gas giants in our solar system has created in the last 3 billion years comparable to the lead in 528 pencils.

https://www.learning-mind.com/fruit-generate-antimatter/

Bananas release for more anti-matter compared to storms. What is interesting is that the most abundant regions where TGF's occur in are also the same regions where banana's grow.

Below is a comparison of anti-matter producing thunderstorms and the regions where bananas grow. Bananas are the only fruit that I have been able to find that releases anti-matter through the decay process.

Therefore, there is a relative factor between bananas and anti-matter producing thunderstorms. Does anti-matter producing thunderstorms help produce banana growth patterns or do banana's provide elements that interact with thunderstorms to produce anti-matter?

 

[Silvercrest]

OR, each one produces positrons through an unrelated means — and there is no connection or correlation between them.

 

[{ Emilia }]

You have got to be kidding me. This isn't the crazy-ideas-in-pseude-science forum. Locking this thread for 24 hours.

 

[{ Emilia }]

So I've decided to re-open the thread a bit early since it does definitely seem like some decent conversatioon about actual science has started. Just please everybody make sure this isn't all about one poster and random crazy ideas.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm going to request that the OP not switch to PMing me with the same foolishness the next time his thread gets closed.

 

[{ Emilia }]

So I've decided to re-open the thread a bit early since it does definitely seem like some decent conversatioon about actual science has started. Just please everybody make sure this isn't all about one poster and random crazy ideas.

I'm going to request that the OP not switch to PMing me with the same foolishness the next time his thread gets closed.

Which part of what I just posted right above you did you not understand? Was it the one I've bolded now?

If you have a problem with somebody, contact me or report them. No off-topic posts anymore please.

 

[BillJ]

I just got done in the loo, pretty sure I just made some anti-matter.