![]() then our universe would host an amount of antimatter equivalent to that of matter, and would finally be a matter-antimatter symmetric universe," Villata said. "If each void contains a mass of antimatter similar to that calculated for our Local Void. ![]() This collection of normal matter, which includes our Milky Way and other nearby galaxies, is all moving at the same speed. To determine how much antimatter might be contained in the Local Void, Villata calculated how much would be needed to create a repulsive force strong enough to explain the so-called Local Sheet. Yet the visible universe appears to be dominated by structures made up of normal matter. Villata says his theory, which will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science, has the potential to solve other cosmic mysteries, such as the universe's "missing antimatter" problem.Īccording to standard physics, matter and antimatter particles should have been created in equal amounts during the big bang. While we can't see antimatter superstructures, we can observe their effects on our visible universe, Villata argues, because antimatter must repel the normal matter in galaxies, pushing them farther from one another. (See "Antimatter Atoms Trapped for First Time-'A Big Deal.'") "Moreover, antimatter in laboratories could have different behavior, since it is 'immersed' in a world of matter." "There can be various reasons why antimatter in voids should be invisible, but we do not know which of them is the right one," Villata said. (Related: "Antimatter Found Orbiting Earth-A First.")Īll this antimatter doesn't emit radiation that can be detected by current sensors, making it effectively invisible, Villata said. Villata thinks these voids harbor vast quantities of antimatter, which could even be organized into antimatter galaxies, complete with antimatter stars and planets. The nearest hole to us is called the Local Void, bordering the Virgo supercluster of galaxies. These holes in our map of the universe-which can each be millions of light-years wide-are inexplicably empty of galaxies and galaxy clusters. (Related: "Dark Matter Is an Illusion, New Antigravity Theory Says.")Īntimatter Hiding in "Holes" in the Universe?Īccording to Villata, the keys to accelerated expansion lie in large-scale voids that are seen scattered throughout the cosmos. "We are replacing an unknown force caused by an unknown element with the repulsive gravity of the well-known antimatter." "Usually this repulsion is ascribed to a mysterious dark energy that would uniformly permeate the cosmos, but nobody knows what it is nor why it behaves this way," Villata said in an email. (Related: "New Galaxy Maps to Help Find Dark Energy Proof?")īut in the new study, Massimo Villata, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Turin in Italy, suggests the effects attributed to dark energy are actually due to a kind of "antigravity" created when normal matter and antimatter repel one another. The leading theory to explain the accelerating expansion is the existence of a hypothetical repulsive force called dark energy. This totally unexpected behavior has been called the "most profound problem" in physics, because our current understanding of gravity says that attractions between mass in the universe should be causing the expansion to slow down. In 1998 scientists discovered that the universe is not only expanding but that its expansion is accelerating. A powerful repulsion between normal matter and hidden pockets of antimatter could be an alternate explanation for the mysterious force known as dark energy, according to a controversial new theory.
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