What's so important about anti-matter?

Because finding it is the first step to recreating it. Recreating it is the first step to harnessing it. Harnessing it means that we get almost unlimited energy. As well, recent discoveries show that warp travel with Antimatter might actually be possible. The future is now.

As well, you are an idiot, no offense. 2 billion dollars is 20$ per person.

When a matter particle meets its antiparticle (say a postitron and an electron) they do annihilate releasing energy (E=mc^2). But the point is that the exact opposite is also true: a photon that has a high enough energy level can convert to a particle / anti-particle pair; converting energy into matter.

The energy that existed just after the Big Bang was truly amazingly high, and should have created particle and anti-particle in equal numbers. But the universe is essentially matter, there is no original anti-matter that we can detect.

So, what happened?

We don't know.

Finding original anti-matter may allow us to understand a few things about the early universe.

And it may have practical applications that we cannot anticipate; that is the basis of pure science. Just over one hundred years ago, radio-activity was discovered. What good was it?

Well, smoke detector use a tiny bit of Americium. Nuclear reactors produces electricity and power aircraft carriers. Some isotopes are used to detect tumor and kill cancerous cells.

To put that $2 billion in perspective, it can be pointed that:

- this represents a mere $7 per person in the USA

- represents what is being sold as cigarettes in a week

- is the cost of one space shuttle launch (and since the shuttle is retired, well, there is some savings that can be anticipated in NASA's budget)

Moreover, the $2 billion is not wasted, as it serves to pay the salary of the people who designed and built the instrumentation. Finally, every $1 spent in space exploration yields a $7 return on the investment in the form of additional technology and business that benefit everyone.

Why did you ask this in R&S where scientifically trained people are not the majority, instead of in the "astronomy and space" section (in "science and mathematics")? You were afraid to get an accurate answer?

None of it left?

You are obviously unaware of what a PET scanner is and what it does.

Positron emission tomography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tom...

In short it is a medical scanner that uses the interactions of Anti-Matter (the aforementioned Positron which is the antimatter version of the humble electron) that is injected into the patient.

So we are using Antimatter and it still exists.

As to the reasons and justifications of the missions and equipment to look for Antimatter? Well that's totally up to you. Some people believe that a better understanding of the universe is a good thing, others say that it is a waste of time.

Who is right? Only time can tell. But I'd rather know about it and not be able to use it than to not know about it when it could be used for good.

sure this is been created. actual, this is being created all the time around the globe. actual this is being created in you precise now (Potassium 40 decay creates positrons). this is been created and studied and used. case in point, i understand of a minimum of one group that's making an attempt to apply antimatter to learn defects in components (do no longer understand how nicely they are doing ...) the enormous bang did create antimatter, yet for some reason there grew to become into so plenty extra count than antimatter. so a techniques as i understand, no person is accustomed to why this is.

Uh antimatter has not disappeared, nor is there any reason to think that there is none in the universe. In fact, the presence of "normal" matter implies that there is at least the same amount of anti-matter present in the universe.

"Why was my tax payer dollars wasted on a scope that's pointing out into space to look at nothing?"

Why are my tax payer dollars wasted on a war that's not benefiting anyone?

Oh, and let's keep in mind that 2 billion is a drop in the hat compared to the TRILLIONS the wars we're waging are costing us, not to mention the countless human lives which are priceless.

Yes, absolutely! We need to spend our money on more important matters, such as beer and the latest electronic gadgets. Anyway, those items are much more representative of our society's level of awareness and culture, don't you agree?

If we can determine how much antimatter there is in the universe we will be able to figure out why bananas are so expensive in Australia at the moment whereas they are so ridiculously cheap elsewhere.

It could be a potential source of future energy and it tells us more how things formed. Its vitally important.

i would rather money be spent on science than on religion or war

It probably did have something beneficial but that you just didn't know about. Just because you don't know what the purpose of the mission was doesn't mean it was pointless.