( CNN ) -- Nuclear scientists in Switzerland recently dropped some antimatter . The world did n't blow up , but there were some tiny explosions . Scientists are hoping the experiment will teach them more about how the universe developed after the Big Bang . Physicists with ALPHA Collaboration research group are trying to figure out how antimatter interacts with gravity , and if it produces `` antigravity , '' says the group 's founder , Jeffrey Hangst . Their experiment mirrors the way Sir Isaac Newton came up with the law of gravity in the late 17th century . Legend has it that an apple fell off a tree and hit the English nobleman on the head . Newton got to thinking how gravity made the apple speed up as it fell . He postulated that matter attracts matter via gravitational force , which is why an object like an apple would fall toward a larger object : the earth . So , if matter attracts matter , what happens when antimatter interacts with it ? Will it produce antigravity ? And would then a ball of antimatter fall up ? Gravity with a twist . `` That would be a revolution , '' Hangst says . `` That would mean we do n't understand something fundamental about the universe . '' And a big piece of the puzzle is indeed missing , he admits . Though people live with the effects of gravity every day and Newton 's law of gravity has been around for over 300 years , scientific understanding of gravity is lagging , he says . `` The way planets and stars move , we understand that well . '' But how matter attracts matter on a molecular level is still greatly a mystery , Hangst says . The ALPHA Collaboration hopes to raise the level of understanding . Antimatter science vs. fiction . Antimatter may be the stuff of science fiction movies and novels , but it is hardly futuristic , according to CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva , where Hangst 's group runs its experiments . Scientists have known about antimatter for more than 80 years , after physicist Carl Anderson discovered positrons in the 1930s . CERN makes the antimatter for ALPHA 's experiment using a particle accelerator , which speeds up subatomic particles to nearly the speed of light and crashes them into each other to produce new particles . In the world of Dan Brown 's `` Angels and Demons '' and Gene Roddenberry 's `` Star Trek , '' antimatter can make the Vatican explode or power a star ship . If a large chunk of antimatter were to touch a large chunk of matter , the explosion would indeed be enormous , but it 's unlikely to happen . Antimatter has not existed naturally in the universe for a very long time . `` Not in the last 13.7 billion years , '' Hangst jokes . That 's basically as long as the known universe has existed . Antimatter abounded . But scientists have long theorized that a lot of antimatter was produced during the universe 's inception . It has since disappeared , and they would like to know why . If equal amounts of matter and antimatter existed initially , they should have annihilated each other , but they did n't . Only matter is left behind . The kind of antimatter CERN makes for the experiment is antihydrogen , a mirror image of hydrogen , which is the smallest known atom . Because it is composed of so few parts , it 's the easiest antimatter atom to make . Antihydrogen 's subatomic particles have an electronic charge opposite from those of regular hydrogen . Hangst 's team uses the latest technology to catch the antihydrogen atoms , hold them without letting them touch matter , and then drop them . When the falling antimatter meets matter , the two `` annihilate '' each other , as scientists say , and give off energy in the process -- a kind of nano-explosion . The ALPHA scientists measure the energy bursts to find how fast the antihydrogen molecules fell after they dropped them . The result . So , did the antimatter fall up ? Scientists with the ALPHA Experiment could n't tell , according to study published in Nature Communications . But the fact that they now have the technology to let it free-fall is a big deal , Hangst said . `` That you can do this at all ... is a bit of a revolution . '' It paves the way for scientists to get the answer in a relatively short time -- a few years instead of a few decades . If scientists can figure out how antimatter interacts with gravity , it would take them a step closer to understanding how the universe was formed during the Big Bang , when a lot of antimatter was still around , Hangst says . Many scientists believe that antimatter acts in the same or in a similar manner as matter when it comes to gravity . The ALPHA Collaboration puts that stance to the test . `` In a world in which physicists have only recently discovered that we can not account for most of the matter and energy in the universe , '' the study says , it would be `` presumptuous '' to cling to the idea . `` We know that there is something fundamental about the universe that we do n't understand , '' Hangst said . In essence , scientists do n't know why the universe exists at all . More space and science news from CNN Light Years . Follow @ CNNLightYears on Twitter .
Scientists have long hypothesized that the Big Bang produced lots of antimatter . It no longer exists in nature , physicists say . But it was predicted by Albert Einstein and other scientists who worked on his theory of relativity. Physicists study it to learn more about the formation of the universe .