False-colour streamer chamber photo of a tritium nucleus produced at the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) at CERN, the European particle physics labo

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False-colour streamer chamber photo of a tritium nucleus produced at the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory outside Geneva. An antiproton enters at the bottom of the picture & annihilates with a proton in the helium-filled chamber to produce the tritium nucleus & 2 pions. The nucleus of tritium, or \heavy hydrogen\", has 1 proton & 2 neutrons; it produces the thick curving track at centre right. The pions, one negative, one positive, produce the less dense tracks that shoot off towards top right & top left. Reactions of this kind occurred in the early Universe, when lightweight nuclei such as helium were beginning to form."

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Size: 4117px × 3870px
Photo credit: © PROF. G PIRAGINO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: antiproton, chamber, image, imagery, lear, particle, photo, physics, pion, streamer, tritium