'Antimatter falls down' are findings of new research, setting the scene to know more about nature of antimatter

New Delhi, Sep 29 (PTI) Antimatter falls downwards, physicists report in a new study, adding that they have answered a long-standing question - does antimatter fall up or down? According to physics, it is thought that antimatter was created along with matter in equal amounts after the Big Bang, the cosmic explosion hypothesised to have marked the universe's origin.

While matter is made of particles, antimatter is said to be made of antiparticles, having the same mass as particles but opposite or complementary properties. However, despite knowing this, the properties of antimatter are still largely unknown.

Here, we show that antihydrogen atoms fall to Earth in the same way as regular matter, the physicists forming the ALPHA collaboration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland, report. Antihydrogen is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen.