| > Because until we find a massive amount of anti-matter I honestly hope this never occurs, or we never are able to contain/store such a mass for any real length of time. Because if we can do it, it will be used for a weapon. Seriously - I can't even imagine what - for instance - one kilogram of anti-matter coming in contact with regular matter - the amount of energy that would be released...it staggers the imagination. Today's fusion weapons release only a fraction of their potential energy; anti-matter conversion would be 100% (roughly): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter_weapon "Using the convention that 1 kiloton TNT equivalent = 4.184×1012 joules (or one trillion calories of energy), one gram of antimatter reacting with one gram of ordinary matter results in 42.96 kilotons-equivalent of energy (though there is considerable "loss" by production of neutrinos)." So...one kilo of anti-matter would be equivalent to 42 megatons - which is close to yield of the Tsar Bomba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba ...but in a much more compact package. 50 kg of antimatter - which would be feasible for current launch systems, and comparable in size to current warheads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W80_(nuclear_warhead) Well - that's a 2 GT weapon...while I'm sure such a thing has been considered as to it's effects...I honestly don't know what that would be. Best guess might be that one such warhead could easily take out a good portion of say, the west coast (of the United States)? Ultimately - we are not ready in any manner - socially, morally, politically - as a species to wield that kind of power responsibly. Honestly, even nuclear weapons fall into that assessment, despite recent history - I'm honestly not sure how we have gotten this far without a major nuclear war occurring. Sadly, though, I know that my conjecture (in which I am not alone, I hope) will not do anything to stop the research - right now, though, the cost to produce anti-matter (let alone contain it) is so high as to make even a small mass cost an exorbitant amount of money. I sincerely hope there isn't any breakthrough on that front. I honestly think we, as a species, are not ready for it (that isn't to say none of us are - but those who would be responsible with such "stuff" are likely very few - I know I am not one of them). |
Also, magnetic fields could definitely contain it, as is already done.
We can already make anti-matter, as it't essentially the process of making matter bounce off, using a photon, in such a way that it reverts its time direction. Or, in classical view: Turn a photon into a particle/antiparticle pair. The problem is, of course, that it first takes those shitloads of energy, that it would release later.
And to actually find anti-matter in nature, you would most likely have to turn into anti-matter yourself, travel back in time, and somehow survive the big bang without touching anything, to come out the hypothetized other side where time is reversed and anti-matter expanded to. Or try to get inside a black hole, and revert your direction of motion (as time and space are reversed in there). Both not yet technically available, to say the least. ;)