Artist's conception of antimatter trap.
Physicists say they have trapped antimatter ~ an elusive type of matter rare in the universe ~ for more than 16 minutes, an eternity in particle physics. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva expect to soon begin experiments on this rare substance.
Antimatter is like a mirror image of matter. For every matter particle, a matching antimatter particle is thought to exist, with the same mass but the opposite charge. Trapping it is difficult, because when it comes into contact with matter, the two annihilate each other. So a container for antimatter can't be made of regular matter, but is usually formed with magnetic fields.
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