Why is nothing not nothing? Let’s be honest, a normal person probably wouldn’t ask this question – but for particle physicists, it’s one of the biggest mysteries. For them, theoretically matter shouldn’t exist at all. Matter and antimatter should have completely annihilated each other after the Big Bang. But there’s no denying it: the universe, the Earth, living beings – they’re all matter.
One possible explanation is that somewhere in the far reaches of the universe – still undiscovered – the same quantity of antimatter exists. This is what the accepted laws of physics postulate. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station (ISS) is searching for traces of this antimatter in outer space and will continue to do so until at least 2020. Our scientists are also involved in this project together with researchers at RWTH Aachen University via the JARA-FAME research alliance.
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