Proof of Antimatter, Anti-gravity Found

A new analysis of the data from NASA's Deep Impact mission has given the world proof positive that large quantities of antimatter exist in our solar system's distant Oort Cloud, the region of space between our star and the next, where comets lurk.

The evidence made a significant impact of its own on two scientific fields, confirming two related cutting-edge hypotheses. The first was gravitational, having vast implications on our knowledge of how the universe operates on the largest scales. The other dealt with the smallest of the small, the quantum particles that make up the building blocks of all matter. Yet the two, like their respective experimental results, are inextricably tied.

On July 4, 2005, a probe sent to crash into comet 9P/Temple 1 made contact, the first such event in human history. While intensive study of the material ejected in the impact continues to this day, one curious event provided the answer to a long-standing question: does antimatter have anti-gravity?

The Theory:

Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity revolutionized our understanding of gravity, redefining it as a bending of time and space around a massive object, very much like placing something heavy on a trampoline creates a downward bulge. Before Einstein, we thought of gravity as a force that existed between objects, like magnetic attraction. Now we know that gravity is indirect; the 'force' comes from one object effectively sliding 'downhill' toward another.

But, unlike all the other forces in the universe, gravity seemed to only work one way; where magnets can attract or repel, gravity was thought to be only attractive. Until Deep Impact, that is.

It has long been theorized that antimatter, being matter's 'mirror image', was exactly the opposite in every way. Recently, a small group of physicists working on an offshoot of Relativity, called 'Zero Sum theory', wondered if that included the way each curved space, creating gravity. If so, it would be indistinguishable from 'normal' gravity for the most part - except on those occasions when matter and antimatter come close to each other.