Antimatter can be created from dark lightning—high-energy light emitted by deflected electrons after they are accelerated to near the speed of light by thunderstorms.

In 1997, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory identified 'positron geysers'—fountains of antimatter particles—emerging from near the center of the Milky Way.

Antimatter was discovered by examining debris from collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy matter particles from space.

Antimatter particles possess the same mass and spin as their normal particle counterparts, but possess an opposite charge and transform into pure energy upon colliding with normal matter.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second.

At CERN's Antimatter Factory, researchers create and guide antiprotons and antielectrons together to form antihydrogen, and all these antiparticles are analyzed to help scientists study the behavior of antimatter.

Antimatter's rarity across the cosmos is one of the biggest problems in modern physics because the high-energy environment of the early universe should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter.

Depictions of antimatter in science fiction include misleading portrayals of it coming from parallel universes, being mined from asteroids, and serving as a workable laser beam.

Antimatter was predicted to exist four years before it was observed, though the mathematics responsible for the prediction described it as matter with negative energy.

It may be possible to create dark matter in particle accelerators

In high-energy collisions, exotic forms of matter can be produced by directly converting energy into mass according to *E = mc*². Even though a dark matter particle would not be directly observable, its creation would result in unaccounted-for mass, which can be compared to potential dark matter candidates for indirect detection.

Research shows that cosmic rays may trigger the cascade of displaced electrons needed to produce lightning, which is also enabled by pointed ice crystals that create strong electric fields.

If particle accelerators did create black holes by packing tremendous energy into a small volume, then trillions would be created in Earth's atmosphere daily by cosmic rays.

If they could be built, antimatter drives, which run on energy released from the collision of matter and antimatter particles, would be the most efficient engines in existence.

In 2026, researchers successfully transported antimatter in a truck using a portable trap that employed electromagnetic fields to hold 92 antiprotons.

Lightning is the sudden flow of electricity in the atmosphere as two oppositely charged regions seek to become balanced via the movement of electrons.

Simulate the impact of an antimatter bomb, which releases energy from the annihilation of matter with antimatter, around the world.

A beam of neutrinos can be created by firing a beam of high-energy protons at a target to produce unstable particles that decay into neutrinos.

The average banana produces one positron—the antimatter counterpart to an electron—every 75 minutes as its trace amounts of radioactive potassium decay.

Interactions between solar storms and Earth's magnetic field create auroras

Solar storms on the Sun's surface produce clouds of electrically charged particles, some of which make their way to Earth. Those trapped in Earth's magnetic field accelerate toward the north and south poles, colliding with atmospheric atoms and molecules in the process, which produces light.

Particles produced in cosmic ray showers that would normally decay long before they reach Earth's surface are observed in ground-based detectors because they experience time more slowly when moving near the speed of light—a phenomenon predicted by special relativity.

The deaths of massive stars and the mergers of neutron stars and black holes can produce gamma-ray bursts—jets of particles moving in opposite directions at near-light speed that comprise the universe's most powerful explosions.

Particle accelerators propel matter toward small targets at high speed

Devices like cathode-ray tube televisions were once basic particle accelerators, but modern ones, such as the Large Hadron Collider, use massive magnetic fields and circular tunnels to achieve energies high enough to recreate the conditions just after the big bang.

Some cosmic rays possess energies as high as 100,000,000 teraelectron volts—more than 10 million times the energy of particles accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider.

Lightning forms when streams of rising and falling charged particles connect

In cloud-to-ground lightning, a buildup of negative charge at the bottom of clouds repels electrons on Earth's surface, leaving behind positively charged particles. When descending negatively charged air—the stepped leader—meets rising positively charged particles—the upward streamer—brightening runs up the connection, producing intense flashes known as return strokes.

Less common types of radioactive decay include emitting neutrons and antimatter

Through neutron emission, one or more neutrons are ejected from atoms that have far fewer protons. Neutrons can also be released by artificially inducing the fission, or separation, of a large atomic nucleus into smaller ones. During beta-plus decay, a positron—the antimatter version of an electron—is produced when a proton turns into a neutron.

Some particles that mediate fundamental forces in nature are their own antiparticles, such as photons—particles of light and mediators of the electromagnetic force.

View a step-by-step breakdown of how helium is forged in stars alongside antimatter

During the proton-proton chain, four hydrogen nuclei—protons—are fused together to create an alpha particle—a helium nucleus—and produce the energy that supports a star's own weight. Through radioactive decay, two of these protons become neutrons, with each releasing an antielectron, or positron, and an electron neutrino.

Cosmic rays are thought to be accelerated to near the speed of light by repeatedly bouncing across shockwaves produced by high-energy cosmic events, such as supernovae.

Plasma is the most abundant form of visible matter in the universe

When electrons are stripped from neutral atoms as a result of high-energy interactions, such as lightning strikes, the atoms become positively charged ions. The mix of these ions and negatively charged electrons, which are too energetic to recombine, is extremely electrically conductive and affected by magnetic fields.

Within ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment—at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created quark-gluon plasma—an exotic form of matter present in the moments after the Big Bang.

Scientists have determined the properties of cosmic rays by analyzing their trajectories in bubble chambers—containers filled with a vapor that clings to charged particles.

Watch lightning strike a building at 40,000 frames per second

When the built-up layer of negative charge at the bottom of clouds is sufficiently high, a network of charge filaments will emerge. If one of the filaments meets a rising strand of positively charged particles, a highly conductive path forms, and charges across all filaments move to the path, generating lightning

Cosmic rays can be detected using cloud chambers—containers where alcohol vapor condenses around trails of ions created by these high-speed particles from space.

The hypothetical matter that neutron stars' cores may contain, including strange quarks

Models of the extreme pressures and energies in neutron stars suggest conditions resembling those believed to have existed within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. In these environments, the quarks that make up protons and neutrons in trios may instead form pairs that combine to form one quantum object. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The sun and Earth's liquid outer core help create the northern and southern lights

Earth's magnetosphere, generated by the movement of molten iron deep within the planet, consists of a magnetic field that deflects charged particles north and south. Some of the particles released by the sun in the solar wind become trapped in this field and are propelled toward the poles, where they produce auroras through collisions with atmospheric particles.

At the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have transformed lead into gold—a process known as chrysopoeia, which alchemists sought for centuries.

Before 1932, when particle accelerators were first used for nuclear research, scientists relied on naturally radioactive substances to advance their understanding of the atomic nucleus.

Cosmic rays are evidence of incredibly powerful astronomical events—solar cosmic rays provide information about eruptions and flares on the sun's surface, while galactic cosmic rays shed light on dying stars.

Dark stars are hypothetical stars that would have existed in the early universe

Primarily composed of visible matter, this celestial object would also contain a significant amount of dark matter that would annihilate with itself, converting its mass into energy. This energy would prevent the star from collapsing under its own gravity and from triggering nuclear fusion until its dark matter fuel was exhausted.

The one-electron theory describes the universe as having only one electron

The thought experiment explains why every electron has the same charge and mass as every other electron, and describes every positron—the antimatter version of the electron—as that same electron traveling backwards in time. Among other foundational challenges, the model suggests that the universe contains equal numbers of electrons and positrons, yet normal matter is much more common than antimatter.

Scientists can create movies of atomic and molecular phenomena using X-ray free-electron lasers, in which images are produced by matter being struck by high-intensity light created by accelerating electrons.

In an X-ray free-electron laser, electromagnetic fields are used to accelerate and move electrons in wiggling patterns, causing them to emit synchronized, high-energy X-rays. This resulting light beam can strike targets up to 120 times per second to create movies of changing molecular structures and phenomena.

Thunder occurs when fast-flowing electricity heats and pressurizes air, causing it to expand and produce a shockwave at each point along the bolt at multiple frequencies.

Despite fears of creating black holes, the Large Hadron Collider produces collisions with energies of 13.6 trillion electronvolts, about one million times smaller than the energy needed to create the lightest possible black holes.

Leptons do not experience the strong nuclear force that binds quarks together

Particles like electrons can exist in isolation, enabling them to move more freely. Within circuits, this allows electrons to carry energy across wire surfaces quickly. Contrastingly, light created in the sun's core is delayed by a million years on its way to Earth due to collisions with free electrons.

An overview of radioactivity, which can spontaneously change one element into another

Unstable atomic nuclei can transmute into a new element—an atom with a different number of protons—by emitting an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) or a beta particle (an electron). The electron can emerge from the nucleus when a neutron, which has no charge, suddenly transforms into a proton and an electron, thereby maintaining zero charge before and after the transformation, but altering the original element.

The air around lightning can reach a temperature of about 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Fahrenheit)—five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Learn how to build your own cloud chamber to detect cosmic rays—particles from space that move near the speed of light—at home.

Some scientists hypothesize that stressed rocks can discharge built-up static electricity in the form of lightning—a phenomenon known as fracto-luminescence, or earthquake lights.

Fritz Zwicky predicted the existence of dark matter and neutron stars

The former resulted from analyzing the motion of galaxies in the Coma Cluster, a subset of the approximately 30,000 galaxies he cataloged during his life. When hypothesizing an origin for observed high-energy particles called cosmic rays, Zwicky and colleague Walter Baade thought they could come from exploding stars, or supernovae—a term he coined—which would leave behind a collapsed star made entirely of neutrons.

After photons—particles of light—neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe.

Stimulating electrons to emit identical photons produces lasers

This effect was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1917, and requires all excited electrons in a material to exist in the same excited metastable state within their atoms. Pumping all atoms through the same mechanism, such as electricity or flash lamps, can create this environment.