10 Examples Of Real Science In Star Trek

Antimatter is real and has been produced on many occasions at CERN, though at a very high cost. Every particle has an antiparticle corresponding to it that is exactly the same in every way, but with opposite charge. For example, an electron has a negative charge but a positron (an antimatter electron) has a positive charge.

When antimatter and normal matter interact with each other, both particles are annihilated and transformed entirely into an amount of energy proportional to the particle's masses. Matter/antimatter reactions are believed to be the most efficient source of energy in the entire universe, due to 100% of the fuel being converted into usable energy. That is why this interaction of matter and antimatter is what powers the photon torpedoes in Star Trek.

So far, CERN has only been able to produce small quantities of antimatter atoms, but one half-gram of antimatter would be enough to create an explosion more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Perhaps we're lucky it's so rare.