By Ron Cowen
SEATTLE — Forget about gamma rays from the hearts of distant galaxies. Scientists now believe gamma rays, as well as beams of energetic particles of antimatter, are common components of lightning storms right here on Earth.
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In 2009, researchers announced that NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope had, for the first time, detected gamma rays produced by antimatter generated in terrestrial lightning storms (SN: 12/5/09, p. 9).
Now, after analyzing additional gamma-ray signals produced by terrestrial positrons — the antimatter counterpart to electrons — Michael S. Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his colleagues think that the antimatter beams do not require special conditions to be generated. Briggs presented the latest findings during a news briefing January 10 at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Details will also appear in an upcoming Geophysical Research Letters.