1 THE BIG BANG
After the Big Bang, only energy existed. There was intense inflation and equal matter and antimatter were produced.
2 PROTONS AND NEUTRONS
Protons and neutrons formed. As antimatter and matter interacted, it led to annihilation, releasing energy.
3 MATTER DOMINATES
A tiny imbalance led matter to dominate. This happened before the first stars began to form.
4 SITUATIO TODAY
There's an asymmetry in the visible universe today, with it composed almost entirely of matter.
WHERE DID THE ANTIMATTER GO?
It was destroyed after the Big Bang
Antimatter and matter are supposed to be created in comparable abundance. However, almost all matter observed from Earth seems to be made of matter rather than antimatter. Where did the antimatter go? Antimatter was either destroyed within a second after its creation in the Big Bang, or the Big Bang made antimatter in a distant universe that is far beyond our reach and our visible world happens to be in a matter zone. The first possibility could be caused by a possible tiny asymmetry between matter and antimatter, and it is being studied by accelerator experiments. The second possibility is being explored by balloon and space-based experiments –a recent famous one is the AMS-02 experiment mounted on the International Space Station. In those experiments, scientists are looking for tiny fragments of primordial antimatter in cosmic rays.
Dr Aihong Tang, Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York
CAN LIGHT ESCAPE BLACK HOLES?
Theory says that it can
Black holes have been found in vast numbers, sitting at the cores of pretty much every large galaxy that's been studied in detail. The holy grail of observational research in this fieldFinding evidence of such glowing black hole horizons will be an important discovery. As telescopes become more powerful across the full spectrum of energies, from radio waves to gamma rays, we aim to probe ever closer to black holes in the universe. Who knows what we may find.
