Antimatter found in Earth's Magnetosphere.

[Iroscato]

Holy crap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14405122

Considering IIRC antimatter sells for about $62,000,000,000,000 a gram, this could be massive. It's got me thinking, would there be any way to mine it?

[LaCroix]

So the earth is conveniently producing/storing fuel for us that we can use to leave it? This might be mother natures way to tell us to GTFO already...

[Iroscato]

So the earth is conveniently producing/storing fuel for us that we can use to leave it? This might be mother natures way to tell us to GTFO already...

It does indeed appear to be a constantly replenishing supply, which is simply music to my ears. This is the most exciting piece of news I've seen in ages. Not neccassarily because we can use it, mine it or even get close to it, but because simply it's THERE.

[Dave]

Oh come on. What's the particle density? That's the real question: how long is it going to take to grab, say, a miligram of this stuff for useful purposes?

[Broomstick]

How long to grab it? How about, how are you going to grab it in the first place? It's anti-matter, it's not like you can use tweezers, at least not material ones. Some sort of magnetic field effect?

[Iroscato]

How long to grab it? How about, how are you going to grab it in the first place? It's anti-matter, it's not like you can use tweezers, at least not material ones. Some sort of magnetic field effect?

That would be my guess, it's the only way I can think of.
It'll probably take decades before we can think about mining it, but with a constantly replenishing supply, it would surely help offset a large portion of our energy needs. Or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

[Dave]

As others on the board never tire of telling us, we can solve our energy problems with old-fashioned fission nuclear power.

We don't need to drag a large magnetic collector into orbit, harvest anti-matter, store it in a way that won't blow up (probably in buckyballs if possible), then keep up a just-in-time delivery system with reentry capsules so that people dirtside can have power. It's just a logistical pain that we would really be better off not pursuing vs fission.

Now, I can see this being used for exotic spacecraft propulsion systems. Sorta.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Holy crap. :shock:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14405122

Considering IIRC antimatter sells for about $62,000,000,000,000 a gram, this could be massive. It's got me thinking, would there be any way to mine it?

A) Not surprising. Cosmic rays slamming into the upper atmosphere are just like us ramming gold nuclei into other gold nuclei in particle accelerators, which is how we produce antimatter now. If some of the antiparticles are launched back into space, instead of deeper into Earth's atmosphere, they can get trapped by Earth's magnetic field just like the charged particles in the Van Allen belts.

B) The antiproton density is still extremely low. It's only a few thousand times more than the what you'd see from other natural sources, and that number is a vanishingly small one.

C) Mining antiprotons from the antimatter Van Allen belt is pie-in-the-sky. The reason the antiprotons persist longer there, is because it's hard vacuum. So you'd need a huge electromagnetic collector, along the lines of a Bussard ramjet, just to collect a handful of antiprotons.