Can astronomers tell whether stars and galaxies are made of anti-matter?

Not directly. In the answer to previous questions related to anti-matter in the universe, I mentioned that the only way we can tell if some object or gas cloud is made of anti-matter is to look for two tell-tail atomic 'lines' at energies of 511 keV and 931.4 MeV. These are produced when, in the first case, electrons and anti-electrons collide and annihilate. The second line, which is over 1800 times the energy of the 'positron' line, is the gamma-ray line produced when protons and anti-protons annihilate. To see whether any large- scale contact between matter and anti-matter is occurring in the Milky Way or beyond, you just have to search for these two lines in the X-ray and gamma-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers have done so over the last 3 decades with instruments of increasing sensitivity and have failed to find any evidence for them except in a few curious objects; one of which is called the 'Great Annihilator' located towards the center of our own Milky Way.

Because stars in our galaxy, and vast clouds of gas and dust, are in contact with each other through a tenuous gas called the 'Interstellar medium', there ought to be plenty of evidence for these annihilation lines if some of the stars in our Milky Way were made of anti-matter. This is not observed, so we can be confident that none of the stars in our Milky Way are made of anti- matter. On the cosmic scale, the situation is less secure, but again, intergalactic space seems to be filled with a hot, tenuous 'Intergalactic medium' which is in physical contact with our Milky Way and other galaxies. If any of these galaxies were made of anti-matter, we should see a strong Positron annihilation line at 511 keV in Intergalactic Space. We do not see evidence for this either.

So, the most conservative interpretation of this is that if anti-matter was once common in the universe, it has long since disappeared before galaxies and stars were formed.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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