<p>Yes it is. See this 2012 blog post by Paul Gilster:</p>

<p><a href="https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/05/17/powering-up-the-antimatter-engine/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/05/17/powering-up-the-antimatter-engine/</a> </p>

<p>It says things like this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Antimatter in space is an idea that James Bickford (Draper Laboratory) analyzed in a Phase II study for NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts, for he had realized that high-energy galactic cosmic rays interacting with the interstellar medium (and also with the upper atmospheres of planets in the Solar System) produce antimatter. In fact, Bickford’s calculations showed that about a kilogram of antiprotons enter the Solar System every second, though little of this reaches the Earth. To harvest some of this incoming antimatter, you need a planet with a strong magnetic field, so Jupiter is a natural bet for Baxter’s scientists, who go there to forage. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>But it also says Saturn's a better bet, and that Earth is handier, along with this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The problem with this — and this has been noted by The Physics <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27847/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">arXiv Blog</a> and Jennifer Ouellette in recent days — is that PAMELA could come up with only 28 antiprotons over the course of 850 days of data acquisition. There is no question that Bickford is right in seeing how antimatter can be produced locally. In fact, the paper on the PAMELA work says this: “The ﬂux exceeds the galactic CR antiproton ﬂux by three orders of magnitude at the current solar minimum, thereby constituting the most abundant antiproton source near the Earth.” But does the process produce enough antimatter to make local harvesting a serious possibility?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you want some antimatter, buy a banana. I kid yet not. See the Symmetry article <a href="https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/2009/07/23/antimatter-from-bananas" rel="nofollow noreferrer">antimatter from bananas</a>. Flip Tanedo says this: <em>“While researching natural sources of antimatter, I discovered a curious article about a naturally occurring potassium isotope that, some fraction of the time, decays via positron emission. The conclusion was that: The average banana (rich in potassium) produces a positron roughly once every 75 minutes”</em>. Better still, buy a whole bunch of bananas! </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-12T22:29:05.863Z
But those are antiprotons produced by cosmic ray collisions (as I mentioned earlier), not purely from collisions of the local matter in the magnetosphere, which is what the OP is asking about. Saturn actually collects more such antiprotons than Jupiter does. Even so, the total amount trapped by Saturn is approximately a milligram.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-14T19:34:42.017Z
@PM 2Ring : I didn't think the method really mattered. The word "generated" is somewhat ambiguous.
John Duffield
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-12T20:40:06.907Z
2019-03-12T20:40:06.907Z
John Duffield
<p>My question is based in this Wikipedia article about the Jupiter magnetic field:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter" rel="noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter</a></p>

<p>Jupiter magnetic field generates plasma and accelerates ionized molecules, eventually producing collisions. <B>Is anti matter generated naturally under this scenario?</B></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-12T09:26:33.147Z
I *guess* that some electron + positron pair production occurs, given the high energies available, but I can't find any solid references, so I won't write an actual answer. OTOH, some antiprotons are produced by cosmic rays, and trapped in planetary magnetospheres, as mentioned [here](https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2016/08/03/antimatter-production-harvesting-in-space/). The total mass of such antimatter is pretty tiny, though.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-12T15:49:39.587Z
100MeV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter is more than enough to make positrons 0.501MeV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron.
Wayfaring Stranger
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-14T19:48:26.360Z
Carlos: check this out: [NASA's Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html). It dates from 2011, I'm not sure of the current status.
John Duffield
<jupiter><magnetic-field><antimatter>
Anti matter in Jupiter magnetic field?
Carlos Zamora
# Anti matter in Jupiter magnetic field?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-12)

My question is based in this Wikipedia article about the Jupiter magnetic field:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter>

Jupiter magnetic field generates plasma and accelerates ionized molecules, eventually producing collisions. **Is anti matter generated naturally under this scenario?**

**Tags:** jupiter, magnetic-field, antimatter

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I *guess* that some electron + positron pair production occurs, given the high energies available, but I can't find any solid references, so I won't write an actual answer. OTOH, some antiprotons are produced by cosmic rays, and trapped in planetary magnetospheres, as mentioned [here](https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2016/08/03/antimatter-production-harvesting-in-space/). The total mass of such antimatter is pretty tiny, though.  
> **username_2**: 100MeV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter is more than enough to make positrons 0.501MeV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron.  
> **username_3**: username_0: check this out: [NASA's Fermi Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/fermi-thunderstorms.html). It dates from 2011, I'm not sure of the current status.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-03-12. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Yes it is. See this 2012 blog post by Paul Gilster:

<https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/05/17/powering-up-the-antimatter-engine/>

It says things like this:

> Antimatter in space is an idea that James Bickford (Draper Laboratory) analyzed in a Phase II study for NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts, for he had realized that high-energy galactic cosmic rays interacting with the interstellar medium (and also with the upper atmospheres of planets in the Solar System) produce antimatter. In fact, Bickford’s calculations showed that about a kilogram of antiprotons enter the Solar System every second, though little of this reaches the Earth. To harvest some of this incoming antimatter, you need a planet with a strong magnetic field, so Jupiter is a natural bet for Baxter’s scientists, who go there to forage.

But it also says Saturn's a better bet, and that Earth is handier, along with this:

> The problem with this — and this has been noted by The Physics [arXiv Blog](http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27847/) and Jennifer Ouellette in recent days — is that PAMELA could come up with only 28 antiprotons over the course of 850 days of data acquisition. There is no question that Bickford is right in seeing how antimatter can be produced locally. In fact, the paper on the PAMELA work says this: “The ﬂux exceeds the galactic CR antiproton ﬂux by three orders of magnitude at the current solar minimum, thereby constituting the most abundant antiproton source near the Earth.” But does the process produce enough antimatter to make local harvesting a serious possibility?

If you want some antimatter, buy a banana. I kid yet not. See the Symmetry article [antimatter from bananas](https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/2009/07/23/antimatter-from-bananas). Flip Tanedo says this: *“While researching natural sources of antimatter, I discovered a curious article about a naturally occurring potassium isotope that, some fraction of the time, decays via positron emission. The conclusion was that: The average banana (rich in potassium) produces a positron roughly once every 75 minutes”*. Better still, buy a whole bunch of bananas!

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: But those are antiprotons produced by cosmic ray collisions (as I mentioned earlier), not purely from collisions of the local matter in the magnetosphere, which is what the OP is asking about. Saturn actually collects more such antiprotons than Jupiter does. Even so, the total amount trapped by Saturn is approximately a milligram.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 : I didn't think the method really mattered. The word "generated" is somewhat ambiguous.  

---

