{"id":405261,"date":"2026-03-26T17:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/405261\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:13:16","slug":"cern-takes-antiprotons-for-a-spin-in-a-test-never-tried-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/405261\/","title":{"rendered":"CERN takes antiprotons for a spin in a test never tried before"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (AP) \u2014 Scientists in Geneva<\/a> took some antiprotons out for a spin \u2014 a very delicate one \u2014 in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success.<\/p>\n

If this so-called antimatter had come into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it would have been annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN,<\/a> had to be extra careful when they took 92 antiprotons on the road for a short ride on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The antiprotons were suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets. <\/p>\n

In methodical exercise over about three hours, the nearly 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) cryogenic box was craned up slowly and moved through a cavernous lab the onto the truck. <\/p>\n

The drive on CERN\u2019s campus itself lasted only about a half-hour to test how \u2014 if at all \u2014 the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out. <\/p>\n

The antiprotons were then placed back in their usual lab area, and the operation was concluded with applause, claims of success, and a bottle of Champagne. <\/p>\n

\u201cTransporting antimatter is a pioneering and ambitious project,\u201d said Gautier Hamel de Monchenault, CERN\u2019s director for research and computing. \u201cWe are at the beginning of an exciting scientific journey that will allow us to further deepen our understanding of antimatter.\u201d <\/p>\n

Taking the first step in a journey to Germany<\/p>\n

Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be tricky business. As scientists understand the universe today, for every type of particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with an opposite charge. <\/p>\n

If those opposites come into contact, they \u201cannihilate\u201d each other, setting off lots of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any bumps in the road on the test journey that aren\u2019t compensated for by the specially-designed box could spoil the whole exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation behind these experiments is to compare matter and antimatter with extremely high accuracy and watch for differences which we might have not seen yet,\u201d said Stefan Ulmer, the leader and spokesperson for Tuesday\u2019s test run.<\/p>\n

The exercise was a first step toward making good on hopes, one day, to deliver CERN antiprotons to researchers abroad \u2014 such as at Heinrich Heine University in D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany, which is about eight hours away in normal driving conditions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are scientists. We want to understand something about the fundamental symmetries of nature, and we know that if we do these experiments outside of this accelerator facility, we can measure 100 to 1,000 times better,\u201d Ulmer said.<\/p>\n

The antiprotons were encased in a \u201ctransportable antiproton trap\u201d box that is compact enough to fit through ordinary laboratory doors and fit on a truck. It used superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (-452 Fahrenheit) that allowed the antiprotons to be remain suspended in a vacuum \u2014 not touching the inner walls, which are made of … matter.<\/p>\n

To put the amount into perspective: <\/p>\n

The mass in Tuesday\u2019s test \u2014 slightly less than that of about 100 hydrogen atoms \u2014 is so little, experts say, that the worst possible outcome was the loss of the antiprotons. Even if they did touch matter, any release of energy would be unnoticeable, only an oscilloscope, which picks up electrical signals, would be able to detect it.<\/p>\n

To put the amount into perspective, Ulmer noted that a single grain of salt contains 10 to the 18th power \u2014 or a billion times a billion \u2014 of particles, and \u201cwe are transporting 100,\u201d give or take.<\/p>\n

The trap, said CERN press officer Sophie Tesauri, \u201cis supposed to contain these antiprotons no matter what: If the truck stops, if it starts again, if it has to slam on the brakes \u2014 all that.\u201d Work remains: The trap can contain the antiprotons on its own for only about four hours, and the drive to D\u00fcsseldorf is twice that.<\/p>\n

The facts of the antimatter: Still being explored<\/p>\n

Antimatter, says experimental particle physicist Tara Shears, is \u201cone of the biggest mysteries that we have in science.\u201d It is now rare, but when the universe was created, half of it was made of antimatter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been able to study it very much,\u201d said Shears, a professor at the University of Liverpool. \u201cBut it holds the keys to our understanding of what \u2014 literally \u2014 why the universe is like it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Particle physicist Alan Barr said science has progressed enough that precise experiments are necessary to spot \u201crather subtle\u201d differences between matter and antimatter.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do this, it\u2019s useful to be able to take small amounts of antimatter from places where it is produced, like CERN, to other laboratories around Europe, where precise tests of it can be done,\u201d said Barr, a professor at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

CERN known for other successes<\/p>\n

The Geneva-based center is best known for its Large Hadron Collider<\/a>, a network of magnets that accelerates particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and slams them together at velocities<\/a> approaching the speed of light. Scientists then study the results of those collisions.<\/p>\n

But the sprawling, buzzing complex of scientific experiment is more than just about smashing atoms together: The World Wide Web, for example, was invented here<\/a> by Britain\u2019s Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. Advances as varied as touch screens and tools to fight cancer<\/a> have been worked on and developed at CERN.<\/p>\n

Heinrich Heine University is seen as a better place to study antiprotons in-depth because CERN, with all its other activities, generates a lot of magnetic interference that can skew the study of antimatter. <\/p>\n

The university is still working on a center that can take in such antiprotons, by 2029 at the earliest, Ulmer said.<\/p>\n

CERN\u2019s Antiproton Decelerator, where a proton beam gets fired into a block of metal, causes collisions that generate secondary particles, including lots of antiprotons. It\u2019s billed as a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for the study of antimatter. <\/p>\n

The CERN \u201cAntimatter Factory\u201d is said to be the only place in the world where scientists can store and study antiprotons.<\/p>\n

The center has been experimenting with antimatter for years, and has made breakthroughs on measurement, storage and interaction of antimatter. Two years ago, the team transported a \u201ccloud\u201d of about 70 protons \u2014 not antiprotons \u2014 across CERN\u2019s campus. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP video journalist Havovi Todd contributed from London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA (AP) \u2014 Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin \u2014 a very delicate one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[271],"tags":[183335,105832,18,183336,3334,32380,19,17,10160,452,133,183337,183334,183338,45689,66],"class_list":["post-405261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-alan-barr","tag-dusseldorf","tag-eire","tag-gautier-hamel-de-monchenault","tag-general-news","tag-geneva","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jwd-evergreen","tag-physics","tag-science","tag-sophie-tesauri","tag-stefan-ulmer","tag-tara-shears","tag-tim-berners-lee","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116296601103737686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}