The team of astrophysicist has found how most of the antimatter in the Milky Way was formed after the supernova. As the mystery of its creation is now revealed, scientists begin to understand the giant cloud of antimatter in the Milky Way.
Astronomers have been searching to uncover the mystery of antimatter in the Milky way for decades when they found the vast deposits of antimatter within the galaxy in the 1970's. Recently, the team of astrophysicist from Australian National University has uncovered the mystery.
The astrophysicists were led by the professor of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, Dr. Roland Crocker. The research has discovered that gamma-rays, the indication of antimatter in the Milky Way were originated from a series of weak supernova explosions over millions of years. The team also found the sources of antimatter in the Milky Way are the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy and the still-mysterious dark matter.
"One idea has been that the antimatter comes from processes associated with the presence of dark matter," Dr. Crocker said in an interview with Sydney Morning Herald regarding the antimatter in the Milky Way "What we can now explain is the antimatter comes from collisions between stars in one of the oldest parts of the galaxy,"
The supernova explosion was caused by the collision between two white dwarf stars millions of years ago. The explosion then emitted gamma-rays, that indicated clearly the presence of antimatter in the Milky Way. The research has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy on May 22, with the working title "Diffuse Galactic antimatter from faint thermonuclear supernovae in old stellar populations."
Antimatter is material that composed of the antiparticle partners of the ordinary matter in the universe. When the antimatter in the Milky Way and its matter counterpart meet, both annihilate each other rapidly, emitting a burst of energy in form gamma-rays. Watch the report of the unsolved mystery of the antimatter in the Milky Way below:
