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[Criptfeind]

Pos. Matter may be the majority of the universe, but due to the fact that when the Big Bang happened matter and antimatter were created in equal quantitys but eventually matter almost completely cancelled out antimatter. I believe there's a large unseen portion of our universe consisting of anti-matter.

What does this have to do with anything?

[KaminaSquirtle]

Pos. Matter may be the majority of the universe, but due to the fact that when the Big Bang happened matter and antimatter were created in equal quantitys but eventually matter almost completely cancelled out antimatter. I believe there's a large unseen portion of our universe consisting of anti-matter.

[x2yzh9]

I don't even know anymore

[Criptfeind]

/thread

No really, I think the best way to save face now is to lock this brain fart.

[Il Palazzo]

Oh, come on people. The matter-antimatter disparity in the observable universe is one of the main problems of cosmology! Don't berate the man for mentioning this particular idea.

[alway]

Pos. Matter may be the majority of the universe, but due to the fact that when the Big Bang happened matter and antimatter were created in equal quantitys but eventually matter almost completely cancelled out antimatter. I believe there's a large unseen portion of our universe consisting of anti-matter.

No. Just... No.

First of all, it isn't mere cancelling out; when matter and antimatter collide, the results are rather explosive. That minor quibble aside, onto the important blaring bit. ANTIMATTER IS NOT SOME MAGICAL THING WHICH TRAVELS BACK IN TIME. IT DOES NOT HAVE NEGATIVE MASS, AND IT CAN NOT BE USE FOR TELEPORTATION, TIME TRAVEL, OR ANY OTHER SCIENCE FICTION HANDWAVERY, SAVE ONLY AS A FUEL SOURCE. THEY MERELY HAVE OPPOSITE CHARGES AND ANHIALATE WITH NORMAL MATTER. This public service announcement brought to you by 20th century physics.

Schuster's ideas were not a serious theoretical proposal, merely speculation, and like the previous ideas, differed from the modern concept of antimatter in that it possessed negative gravity.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter#History_of_the_concept

[ChairmanPoo]

Spoiler: congrats x2yzh9! (click to show/hide)

[x2yzh9]

But but, I wasn't trying to troll.

[Realmfighter]

You succeeded nevertheless.

[x2yzh9]

By jove, I've done it  !

Anyway, since this thread has derailed killing many innocent discussions, unless someone wants to continue the debate I'm going to close the thread.

[Eagleon]

It's not out of the question that large bodies of antimatter exist in the universe. It's just not very likely given current observational data, though that's not saying much - we've barely scratched the surface of what we're able to detect, Re: recent thread about the giant galaxy-sized bubble of gamma rays for one example.

There would be at least a few pretty anomalous high-energy events different from anything we've seen, if this were the case. A star made of antimatter would look identical from a distance to a normal star when it isn't interacting with regular matter, for the simple fact that photons are the same no matter what. The only way we'd know is by finding one of these events and eliminating other possible causes.

[alway]

Indeed. However, it is more likely if we say large bodies of antimatter existed in the universe. After several generations of stars, antimatter, had it been able to form stable bodies, would likely have anhialated for the most part. If such structures are to be found, we would likely find them at the edge of the visible universe, closer to the big bang. Although having not looked into the discussion surrounding the early universe, I can't really speculate at how likely such a thing would have been, even then.

And if an antimatter and normal matter star were to collide... It would be one of the biggest light shows the universe had ever seen.

[ChairmanPoo]

This reminds me of a Larry Niven story, where a character, who wants to do something that makes him famous, buys from a race of aliens that deal in (very expensive) information, "the location for the most singular solar system in the neighbourhood. After making the transaction, the aliens tell him that "for an additional fee, they will tell him what's so singular about that solar system". He refuses, noting that he will "...find out anyway, wont I?". The aliens laconically tell him that yes, he will. As you might imagine for the conversation topic, the system was very singular because it was an antimatter system. He barely makes it out alive as his ship begins to disintegrate around him because of contact with anti-solar wind.

[Eagleon]

I just finished Juggler of Worlds, which is why it's fresh in my memory. Surrounds the impact that discovery had on the Puppeteers. Not the best I've ever read, but certainly interesting.

I'm really wondering if the gamma bubbles aren't connected to antimatter - antimatter/matter annihilate to create energy in mostly gamma wavelength, no? I'm not even going to pretend to be able to evaluate that possibility, though.

[Il Palazzo]

Indeed. However, it is more likely if we say large bodies of antimatter existed in the universe. After several generations of stars, antimatter, had it been able to form stable bodies, would likely have anhialated for the most part. If such structures are to be found, we would likely find them at the edge of the visible universe, closer to the big bang. Although having not looked into the discussion surrounding the early universe, I can't really speculate at how likely such a thing would have been, even then.

And if an antimatter and normal matter star were to collide... It would be one of the biggest light shows the universe had ever seen.

The problem is, if there was exactly the same amount of matter and antimatter created in the nascent phases of the universe's life, what caused matter to prevail over it's twin brother? It couldn't simply "annihilate", as the process requires equal amounts of matter and antimatter to convert them to radiation.
While I read a book once, in which the author argumented for the possibility of basically half of the stars in e.g.our Galaxy to be made of antimatter, and that it could be just as well undetectable for us or any other observer(unless somebody actually bothers to visit), this does seem highly unlikely, providing the amount of energy released during annihilation, and the fact that over the millenia, somewhere, somethings simply would have to collide with one another, creating the sort of fireworks that we've never seen before.
In other words, it actually seems that the observable universe is composed only of matter, so where did the anti-matter go?