• Question: what would happen if dark matter ever make contact with matter and energy?

    Asked by littlemisstiger to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Hi littlemisstiger,

      From what I know of dark matter (which isn’t a huge amount), it is said to be so abundant in the Universe that dark matter is in contact with matter we can see. Energy is not solid, it is a property of soild objects and of radiation in it’s various forms, so will also be in contact with all matter in the Universe.

      So, I presume nothing happened as they are already touching.

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Hi littlemisstiger,
      I think you might be thinking of antimatter! Antimatter is just like normal protons and electrons, but they have opposite charges. So while a proton has a positive charge, an anti-proton has a negative charge, and while an electron has a negative charge, an anti-electron has a positive charge.

      When anti-particles meet with their normal counterparts (so an electron with an anti-electron, for example), they annihilate each other, producing energy in an explosion. Because individual particles are so small, these are tiny explosions, but I guess in theory if you could isolate enough antimatter and then bring it into contact with matter you could create a seriously large explosion!

      It’s still a big question why the universe should be made almost entirely of matter, and not antimatter. It appears that there must have been more matter than antimatter during the big bang, and now all the antimatter has been annihilated by collisions.

      Antimatter can be created in certain radioactive reactions, however it soon collides with a particle of matter and is destroyed again.

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