Posted on 08/05/2011 12:37:17 PM PDT by Red Badger
Physicists have long suspected that antiprotons must become trapped in a belt around Earth. Now they've found it.
The Earth is constantly bombarded by high energy particles called cosmic rays. These are generated by the Sun and by other sources further afield. (The source of the highest energy cosmic rays is still a mystery).
The particles are generally protons, electrons and helium nuclei and when they collide with nuclei in the Earth's upper atmosphere they can produce showers of daughter particles. These showers can be so extensive that they can easily be observed from the ground.
Astronomers long ago realised that these collisions must produce antiprotons, just as they do in particle accelerators on Earth. But this raises an interesting question: what happens to the antiprotons after they are created?
Clearly, many of these antiparticles must be annihilated when they meet particles of ordinary matter. But some astronomers always suspected that the remaining antiprotons must become trapped by the Earth's magnetic field, forming an antiproton radiation belt.
Now astrophysicists say they've finally discovered this long-fabled belt of antiprotons.
In 2006, these guys launched a spacecraft called PAMELA into low Earth orbit, specifically to look for antiprotons in cosmic rays.
But, like most spacecraft in low Earth orbit, PAMELA must pass daily through the South Atlantic Anomaly, a region where the Van Allen Radiation Belts come closest to the Earth's surface. It's here that energetic particles tend to become trapped. So if any antiprotons are caught up in the mix, that's where PAMELA ought to find them.
Now the PAMELA team has analysed the 850 days of data, looking only at the times when the spacecraft was in the South Atlantic Anomaly (about 1.7 per cent of this time).
Lo and behold, these guys found 28 antiprotons. That's about three orders of magnitude more than you'd expect to find in the solar wind, proving that the particles really are trapped and stored in this belt.
This constitutes "the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth", say the PAMELA team.
The South Atlantic Anomaly is well known as a thorough nuisance. Because of the high energy particles here, the Hubble Space Telescope must be switched off when it passes through several times a day; and the International Space Station has extra shielding to protect astronauts from its effects.
The discovery of an additional belt of antiprotons won't have much impact on the danger it represents--the number of antiprotons is tiny compared to the electrons and protons trapped there.
But it's always interesting to have theoretical predictions confirmed. That's good science at work.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1107.4882: The Discovery Of Geomagnetically Trapped Cosmic Ray Antiprotons
interesting.
Not to worry. Pacman gobbles them up.
Yes, yes, but what does this have to do with global warming?
Don’t these people know global warming is the only real science?
Definitely Bush’s fault, except they called them “neoprotons” and they were willing to destroy 55% of the known universe in order to build a neutrino-pipeline through Khazakistan to make sure Halliburton was able to hose blacks with neutrino streams and keep them enslaved.
Non-wasted crisis from the skies?
Ooh. Someone at MIT screwed up. Dimensions on the vertical axis should be
not
But they're so much smarter than me, and love John Kerry.
...and make them addicted to crack cocaine. Recent studies at our most trusted universities have determined that neutrino streams cause people to be addicted to crack cocaine...
Now I know where to go when the warp nacelles get a little low.
Showers of daughter particles????? Is that what they are really called????? I expect that N.O.W. will issue a protest. It’s insulting to females.
We have been told that we’re not supposed to say “Founding Fathers” because of women’s lib. Even though they were all men, we’re not supposed to recognize that fact because it offends feminists. So, I figure it must offend feminists if scientists refer to “daughter particles”.
I always wonder why N.O.W. has never protested at Disneyland. In the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there are women lined up in one place, with a sign reading “Take A Wench For A Bride”. Maybe because it portrays something from hundreds of years ago, the girls of N.O.W. don’t think it’s truly offensive to women today???????
I’m just enough of a contrarian that if these MIT physicists are going to come down on the side of the antiprotons, I’ll adopt a pro-proton stance, if for no other reason than to irritate them...
Thanks for posting this!
I (along with, I’m sure, many other FReepers) find these articles of scientific curiosity a welcome respite from the dulling barrage of bad news from Washington.
Man does not live by politics alone.
Antifashion Rad Belt Discovered Around (MO's) Girth
Well if you weren’t such a flat-Earther and a nutty birther you would know that if you weren’t killing the Earth with your SUV and profligate use of paper products in your planet killing bathroom that those anti-protons would have a more positive outlook and be transformed in positive protons thereby halting killing of the Earth.
exactly, I knew it, it’s been there the whole time..
This is where socks disappear to..
it’s all in the spinning of the laundry yaknow..
warps time and fabric.. or is it the fabric of time? :-)
What kind of shielding was used on Apollo program?
That’s still a very low density. But maybe it’s higher farther out.
My first thought was: Maybe we could harvest them and use the annihilation energy to power spacecraft.
Better than “DiLithium Crystals” I bet. :)
28 antiprotons does not constitute a belt around the Earth.
“I expect that N.O.W. will issue a protest. It’s insulting to females.”
Only if the daughters are commie-libs. If they are conservative daughters they can be called names with impunity./s
LOL!
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