CERN delivered antimatter by road for the first time.

Experiment BASE: first successful transfer of antimatter

*March 24 2026* – At the CERN (French‑Swiss center) the BASE project team reached a historic milestone: for the first time in the world they successfully moved samples of antimatter from one laboratory to another, using a portable cryogenic trap. This event opens the prospect of transporting antiparticles to any European research centers and allows more detailed measurements than possible at CERN’s site.

How it was done
1. Sample creation – In a stationary setup a cloud of 92 antiprotons was formed, held in a “Penning” trap.

2. Detachment and transport – The trap was detached, placed into a special container and transported by vehicle to the new research location within CERN.

3. BASE‑STEP technology – The mobile system weighing about 1000 kg includes a superconducting magnet, cryogenic cooling with liquid helium, backup power and a vacuum chamber. Thanks to its compactness and damping system it can move through narrow laboratory corridors while keeping antiparticles at ultra‑low temperatures.

Why this matters
- Safety – Antimatter annihilates instantly upon contact with ordinary material, causing an explosion. The event itself is less dangerous than losing rare samples that have been collected for years.

- Measurement precision – Inside CERN accelerators and colossal magnets (including the LHC) strong electromagnetic fields make it difficult to work with low‑energy antiparticles. Moving samples to cleaner laboratories allows measurements with greater accuracy.

- Scientific goal – Precise data on antiproton properties will help unravel baryon asymmetry of matter, explaining the dominance of ordinary matter in the Universe.

What’s next
The plan now is to transport antimatter to European labs such as Heinrich Heine University (Düsseldorf) and others. This will enable researchers to conduct experiments outside CERN and opens new horizons for fundamental studies of antimatter.