Swiss physicists have achieved what seemed unattainable: for the very first time, they successfully transported antimatter using a truck. This feat was reported by the publication Futurism. A team of experts from CERN managed to move 92 antiprotons to a different laboratory over a thirty-minute period.
To pull off this audacious plan, the particles were housed in a specialized vacuum container that required cooling down to minus 269 degrees Celsius. The truck traveled at a cautious pace, not exceeding 42 kilometers per hour.
The primary challenge stems from antimatter’s extreme danger: the annihilation of just one kilogram of this substance would release energy comparable to the most powerful nuclear bomb ever created. In this particular instance, there was no threat to human life because only a minuscule quantity of particles was being moved. Even if annihilation had occurred, it would have resulted in the release of no more than one-millionth of a joule—something ten thousand times less energy than what is needed to press a computer key.
Scientists had been striving for the capability of stable antimatter transport for over 30 years. Now, it has finally happened. This warrants celebration, and the project’s originators admitted, “We bought a lot of champagne.”
As a reminder: antimatter (or anti-substance) is composed of antiparticles. These are counterparts to fundamental particles, differing from their originals only in charge and quantum numbers. The mutual destruction reaction between a particle and its corresponding antiparticle is referred to as annihilation.
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