Monday, April 2, 2012

#Antimatter factory Our galaxy produces 10 billion tonnes of antimatter every second. What could be pumping out so many positrons

Rod Borghese  -  10:44 AM  -  Public

Antimatter factory
Our galaxy produces 10 billion tonnes of antimatter every second. What could be pumping out so many positrons?http://www.newscientist.com/special/milky-way-mysteries?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2012-0204-GLOBAL|milkyway&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_content=milkyway
Mysteries of the Milky Way - New Scientist

From its furthest dark-matter-spattered reaches to the black hole at its core, Stephen Battersby explores 11 enigmas of our galaxy
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Ramsez Stamper  -  Does that imply that much matter is being annihilated every second ? Assuming the antimatter does not remain in our universe for long without running into matter.
10:46 AM   
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(Image: Luis Argerich/Getty Images) 

From its furthest dark-matter-spattered reaches to the black hole at its core, Stephen Battersby explores 11 enigmas of our galaxy
QUANTUM WORLD

Antimatter factory

Positron powerhouse <i>(Image: Visuals Unlimited/Carol & Mike Werner/Getty)</i>
Our galaxy produces 10 billion tonnes of antimatter every second. What could be pumping out so many positrons?
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MAPPING

Our galaxy's shape

Our ticket's not valid <i>(Image: Samuel Arbesman/NTI Media Ltd/Rex Features)</i>
Our lowly viewpoint in the galactic disc means we struggle to trace the Milky Way's outline, but new mapping methods could finally reveal its true face
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STRANGE OBJECTS

Five oddities of our galaxy

V838 Monocerotis and its light echo <i>(Image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI))</i>
From a supermassive black hole to blue stragglers, we round up a quintet of our galaxy's most puzzling objects
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NEIGHBOURS

Andromeda, our sibling rival

A pretty well-adjusted spiral <i>(Image: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP))</i>
We used to think the Andromeda and the Milky Way were near-twins but it seems one is a golden child and the other an oddball
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COSMIC DUST

Fast-moving clouds defy gravity

We thought the Magellanic clouds were part of our entourage, but they may just be two charismatic space tourists
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DARK MATTER

Disappearing dwarf galaxies

This model of the Milky Way (blue) and orbiting stars (pink) from the Canis Major dwarf galaxy was produced by infrared data obtained by 2MASS (2-micron all-sky survey) in November 2003. The dwarf galaxy is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, only 42,000 light years from its galactic centre (white, centre). The pink areas around the Milky Way are streams of stars being pulled away from the dwarf galaxy (white dot at lower left of the galactic centre) by the gravitational forces of the Milky Way <i>(Image: R. Ibata, Strasbourg Observatory, ULP/NASA/Science Photo Library)</i>
We know of 26 small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, but theories of dark matter suggest we should have an army of them. So where are the lost legions?
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STELLAR EXPLOSIONS

Where are all the supernovae?

Victoria's supernova? These are the expanding remains of G1.9+0.3, in an X-ray image from early 2007 (shown in orange) and a radio image from 1985 (in blue). The difference in size between the two images gives clear evidence for expansion, allowing the time since the original supernova explosion to be estimated <i>(Image: X-ray, NASA/CXC/NCSU/S.Reynolds and colleagues; radio, NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D. Green and colleagues)</i>
The Milky Way should host about three stellar explosions per century, but in the past millennium and a bit we have seen only five or six
Posted by Robby Ball at 7:54 AM