Scientists get closer to solving mystery of antimatter - BBC News

The elusive substance holds the key to discovering how the Universe was formed.

23 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, SAKKMESTERKE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption, Artwork: shortly after the Big Bang which created the Universe, matter and antimatter existed in equal amountsBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentScientists have made a key discovery about antimatter - a mysterious substance which was plentiful when the Universe began.

Antimatter is the opposite of matter, from which stars and planets are made.

Both were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang which formed our Universe. While matter is everywhere, though, its opposite is now fiendishly hard to find.

The latest study has discovered the two respond to gravity in the same way.

For years, physicists have been scrambling to discover their differences and similarities, to explain how the Universe arose.