You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: The Van Allen Belts: Rings of radiation high above our heads
While antiprotons and positrons are technically stable, they won't last long anywhere in the universe unless they are moving very fast, as they will quickly annihilate themselves with nearby regular protons and electrons.
I was going to ask, how come they don't get destroyed. So if they move real fast they can "co-exist" along with regular matter?
Interestingly, there have been proposals to destroy the Van Allen belts.
!!!
The antiprotons do eventually get destroyed, but they are regenerated over time, so the number in the belts should be approximately constant. Remember there's almost no atmosphere in most of the VA belts, so the chances of the antiprotons hitting anything are obscenely low.
In general I believe antimatter annihilation reactions are easier at low speeds (positron annihilation comes to mind). When positrons are produced in decay reactions, they tend to slow down before annihilating.