starship-design: Re: antimatter fountain: popsci article

[TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

Ben,

Indeed 28 Apr 1997 the NASA newsletter wrote about "Antimatter Clouds and
Fountain Discovered in the Milky Way"

>however, other scientists have proposed a different source for
>the positrons: one or more black holes believed to exist at 
>the galaxy's center.

>so guys, what do you think of this? id like to hear
>what you think... if its true or not, if they got anything
>wrong... etc etc.

The 511KeV signature has indeed been seen for a long time where electrons
and positrons annihilate. Likely astronomic disasters (supernovea etc.) work
like particle accelerators and thus can create similar particles.
So yes, it is quite sure positrons are available (They don't know for how
long though, they may well be annihilated microseconds after their creation.)
The source is likely to be guesswork until better observations and models
become available.

The big disadvantage for practical use is that this source is too far away.


Timothy