Antimatter: The Costliest Material on Earth at $62 Trillion Per Gram

Have you ever wondered what the most expensive material on earth is? Well, most of us have assumed it to be something like gold, emeralds, or diamonds, but that’s not true. Antimatter, a mysterious material that most of us have never seen, touched, or heard about, is the costliest substance in the world. You can just imagine its massive cost, as one gram of gold costs thousands, but one gram of antimatter costs around $62 trillion.

The costliest material on earth can’t be bought from any shop or just dug out of the ground, as it is created by advanced technology in labs by scientists. Keep reading to know about this tiny, mysterious material, what it is, what makes it special, and more.

What is Antimatter?

We’re already aware that everything, from stars to your school, is made up of tiny particles called atoms. These are further divided into protons, neutrons, and electrons. Now imagine that each of these matters had an opposite twin, and that’s antimatter.

In simpler words, the opposite of every normal particle exists and is called antimatter, like an electron’s opposite is a positron, which commonly has a similar size but has a different charge. Scientists believe that the Antimatter – costliest material on earth can lead to new discoveries in space, energy, and other concepts related to the universe. 

Unlike things like gold or iron, antimatter doesn’t exist naturally on Earth. Scientists create it in labs using very advanced technology. The theory related to this mysterious substance was first explained in the early 20th century by Paul Dirac. His work led to the discovery of the first antiparticle, the positron. Interestingly, this is the kind of fascinating fact that sparks curiosity in students learning at boarding schools in Dehradun, where science and innovation often play a big role in education.

How Antimatter is Produced?

Now we know that antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. We can think of it like looking in a mirror; matter is on one side, and antimatter, which looks the same but has the opposite charge, is its reflection. This material cannot be dug out of the ground like coal or gold.

The production process of the world’s expensive material is not simple and is carried out by scientists in advanced labs, and requires a huge amount of energy. They are made using machines called particle accelerators, and the LHC at CERN is one of the labs in the world where it is produced.

Scientists take tiny particles like protons and move them to extremely high speeds and crash them into a material block made of indium. When the block and particles smash together, a lot of energy is released, and sometimes around a million collisions lead to the production of antiprotons or antiparticles. This type of knowledge often inspires young minds in schools in Dehradun, where curiosity-driven learning helps shape future scientists and innovators.

How Antimatter Can Be Used?

Even though advanced machines are used to produce the costliest material on earth, its production process is very slow and costly. Despite its challenging production process, scientists believe that it can be used in the future as:

1. Medical Applications

It is already used in PET scans to generate detailed images of the body, especially the brain and heart. This helps doctors to visualize metabolic activity, detect tumors, and diagnose various serious conditions. It is expected that in the future, the world’s expensive material can be used actively to treat diseases, like destroying harmful cancerous cells. 

2. Space Travel

According to NASA, the costliest material on Earth can be used as rocket or spacecraft fuel and help in space exploration. Scientists at NASA say that this substance releases significantly more energy than conventional fuels used presently. So, it is expected that this mysterious material will help astronauts travel to other planets and star systems in the future. 

3. Weapons

Currently, it is just a daydream that antimatter can be used as a weapon, but if it becomes possible in the future, surely this material will be the most destructive weapon ever. This is because only a few particles of antimatter release significant energy when they come in contact with normal matter, even stronger than petrol and nuclear power.

What Makes Antimatter so Expensive?

Only a gram of antimatter costs around $ 62 trillion, and here are the main reasons that make this material so expensive: 

1. Production Problem

As we already discussed, the production of antimatter is very slow, as only producing even a gram of it would take billions of years at the current rate. Since its discovery, scientists haven’t figured out a solution for its fast production, and they have not created it in an amount that can be used for real use. 

2. Difficult Storage

Another reason that makes this mysterious material the costliest material on earth is the storage issue. When antiparticles come in contact with their mirror opposite, normal matter particles, they explode with huge energy. Scientists use special and powerful electromagnetic fields inside a vacuum to store it safely. 

3. High Cost of Infrastructure

A massive amount is needed to invest in producing and storing antimatter safely. Additionally, scientists have very little knowledge about how it can be produced in large amounts and can be useful in space travel and medicine.  

Antimatter: An Extremely Rare Material with Extraordinary Value

Unlike normal matter, antimatter doesn’t naturally exist in large quantities and is manufactured by scientists using advanced technologies. The storage and production of this material are very challenging, and the overall product costs billions of dollars. From high energy requirements and very low yields to complex manufacturing processes and advanced infrastructure requirements, this substance is now the most costly material on earth. The energy used to make a few particles of antimatter is enough to power a large city. 

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