In your hand lies a minuscule grain—just one gram. If this were to explode, it would release energy akin to the detonation of four Hiroshima-like nuclear bombs. And its cost?
Approximately 625 trillion rupees (62.5 trillion USD) per gram. That's more than India's annual budget (around 50 trillion rupees) for just one gram.
Our entire universe is crafted from ordinary matter—you, me, air, water, rocks, the sun—everything. Antimatter is the exact opposite of these particles.
Source: aajtak
The charge of a normal electron is negative (−), while that of an anti-electron (positron) is positive (+). A regular proton holds a positive charge (+) compared to an anti-proton's negative (−). When these collide, 100% of the mass converts into pure energy—no ash, no smoke, just blinding light and heat.
From 1995 to 2025, every experiment globally has managed to create just about 10 nanograms (0.00000001 grams) of antimatter. This wouldn't even light a bulb for a second, yet billions have been spent in its creation.
CERN (swiss-france border) - the world's largest machine, LHC (27-kilometer-long circular tunnel).
Fermilab in America.
GSI Helmholtz Center in Germany.
At these sites, particles are accelerated to 99.999% of the speed of light, colliding and creating antimatter particles momentarily.
Source: aajtak
Contact with any object would cause an instant explosion, so...
It's cooled to nearly −273 degrees Celsius (almost absolute zero).
Suspended in the air using powerful magnetic and electric fields (Penning Trap).
Constantly checked millions of times per second to prevent any particle collision.
In 2011, CERN set a world record by keeping 309 anti-hydrogen atoms alive for 16 minutes and 40 seconds.
A Revolution in Space Travel
... Journeying to Mars currently takes 7-9 months. With an antimatter rocket, the journey could be as short as a month, reaching other stars within years. NASA estimates that only 10 milligrams of antimatter could propel a spacecraft to Pluto.
Boundless Source of Energy
... 1 gram of antimatter combined with 1 gram of normal matter equals the energy of 43 kilotons of TNT. That's enough to power all of India for 10-12 days with just one gram.
Cure for Cancer
... PET scans already use a bit of positron (anti-electron). In the future, anti-protons could target cancer cells with even greater precision.
Source: aajtak
Producing 1 gram could require LHCs running for 1 million years constantly. Just one second of experimentation costs millions. So far, what's been created has cost billions of dollars.
The Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Today, antimatter is nearly vanished. Scientists are still searching for its remainder. A single gram dropped on Earth could annihilate an entire city.
Presently, antimatter is a laboratory marvel, but tomorrow, it might revolutionize human civilization. The day we can produce and store it cheaply and safely will mark the day energy becomes free. Then, not diamonds or gold, but a tiny vial of glowing, floating antimatter will be the world's rarest treasure.
