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Gravity Probe B

Testing Einstein's Universe

Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers

Could energy ever come to a point and create mass?

Well...that depends. Energy in the form of light, and in particular photons of light, can be stimulated to spontaneously produce matter/anti-matter pairs, but the photons have to pass by another particle in order to transfer angular momentum. Photons cannot individually create particles in empty space.


Return to the Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers page.

All answers are provided by Dr. Sten Odenwald (Raytheon STX) for the NASA Astronomy Cafe, part of the NASA Education and Public Outreach program.