News Release
19
Comets are
composed of
AntiMatter.
Thursday, May 24, 2001
Halley's comet is a cylindrical shaped solid measuring 16 by 8 by 8 kilometers that orbits the sun with an average period of seventy-six years. The comet reacts with stellar dust particles and the solar wind that is created by the sun blowing off a million tons of ionized gas per second. As the comet comes closer to the sun, the comet becomes brighter because the density of matter increases from matter and antimatter interactions.
The comet's five major parts are: the nucleus, coma, hydrogen cloud, dusty tail, and ion tail.
|
Courtesy of the European Space Agency's Giotto Spacecraft |
The nucleus is composed of antimatter. The comet is black and only about ten percent of the comet's surface is active. As shown in the picture, the light and x-rays coming from the comet's surface are produced when matter (solar wind and stellar particles) reacts with antimatter (comet). When stellar dust and ionized gas hitting the comet, small bits of antimatter dust are driven off and become part of the comet's Dusty Tail. The high energy antimatter particles and ions jets out the back of the comet become part of the comet's Ion Tail. Approximately ten meters of the comet's surface is lost each time the comet orbits the sun. |
![[Comet diagram]](cometdiag.gif) |
The Coma is a plasma that surrounds the nucleus and can be 100,000 kilometers across. The coma is composed of antimatter particles (antihydrogen, antisodium, and other antimatter gases). Because antimatter has similar characteristics as matter, astronomers and scientist have mistakenly assumed that the Coma's is composed of matter rather than antimatter. (See Periodic Table of Matter and Antimatter Elements). |
| The Hydrogen Cloud is also a plasma that grows to over 20 million kilometers (12.5 million miles) which fifteen times larger than the sun. According to Hannes Alfven, the Alfven Layer, which is similar to the Lindenfrost Layer for water, provides a protective electromagnetic force field between matter and antimatter and is generated by matter-antimatter annihilation. For comets, the layer is mostly composed of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen. |
 |
Dusty Tail is composed of low energy antimatter dust particles driven off from the nucleus and escaping antimatter gases. The tail extends up to 10 million kilometers behind the comet. The Dusty Tail bends with the solar wind. The light from the comet comes from matter and antimatter interactions |
| Ion Tail is pointed directly away from the sun, and is composed of high energy antimatter plasma and is laced with rays and streamers caused by interaction with the solar wind. The ion tail may be several hundred million kilometers long. |
The light from comet comes from the interaction of matter and antimatter. The amount of light coming from the comet depend upon the density of matter of the solar wind and the protons coming from the sun. As the comet approaches the sun the solar wind and protons are more intense.
Please visit the Halley's comet website for more information.