Massive antimatter `fountain' found spewing in outer space

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. An orbiting observatory has detected amysterious cloud of antimatter particles that appears to be boilingup from the center of our galaxy to form a massive spewing fountainmore than 17,400 trillion miles into space.

Scientists from Northwestern University and the Naval ResearchLaboratory who announced the discovery at a scientific meeting hereMonday said they were amazed, perplexed and delighted by the enormouseruption apparently 3,000 light years out from the heart of Earth'shome galaxy, the Milky Way.

"It is like finding a new room in the house we have lived insince childhood," said Charles Dermer of the Naval ResearchLaboratory in Washington, a researcher from one of five collaboratinginstitutions that discovered the fountain. "And the room is notempty. It has some engine or boiler making hot gas filled withannihilating antimatter."The discovery not only changes scientists' perspective on ourhome galaxy, but also should provide new insights to the workings ofbasic processes in other galaxies throughout the universe, theresearchers said.To most people, antimatter is exotic-sounding stuff frequentlyassociated with science fiction. But the concept of antimatter flowsnaturally from leading theories of physics developed by AlbertEinstein and others early in this century. In the form of subatomicparticles, antimatter has been created in laboratories and detectedin nature.Ordinary matter is constructed of the basic atomic buildingblocks of protons, neutrons and electrons. Antimatter particles areexact duplicates of these except that they have opposite properties.An electron, for example, carries a negative charge while itsantimatter counterpart carries an equal, opposite charge - a positivecharge - and is therefore called a positron.The researchers were astounded to find evidence of a cloud ofantimatter particles towering above the plane of the galaxy, aneighborhood believed to be so empty of material that someparticularly violent or unusual mechanism - a smoking "positron gun"- will be required to explain it, they said."The origin of this new and unexpected source of antimatter is amystery," said William R. Purcell, of Northwestern University.The two most likely sources are antimatter factories at theverge of black holes, such as one called the Great Annihilator, or "athousand star deaths" occurring in waves of titanic explosions, orboth.Earth's solar system inhabits the outskirts of the Milky Way,about 25,000 light years from its core.