NASA: Thunderstorms fire antimatter into space

Antimatter has long been viewed in science-fiction as the ultimate power source for starship engines, planet-killer weapons, other futuristic devices or the bomb planted beneath the Vatican in the novel and movie "Angels & Demons." To date, however, our experience with antimatter is largely limited to fleeting glimpses of the trails left by cosmic rays streaking through the Earth's atmosphere and short-lived antimatter particles created by high-energy collisions directed by massively powerful particle accelerators.

Naturally Occurring Terrestrial Antimatter
This week, however, NASA announced that scientists using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have discovered that the creation of anti-matter beams may be occurring hundreds of times each day right here on Earth, or more specifically, above the Earth during ordinary thunderstorms.

Power of Thunderstorms Includes Antimatter Beams
No one who has ever been shaken down to their bones by sudden thunderclap doubts the power of a thunder storm, but antimatter? Lightning storms create a phenomenon known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, and it is these bursts of energy, NASA says, in which scientists believe the antimatter beams detected by the orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are created. Space.com