JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An international team of scientists has observed and measured the free fall of antimatter atoms for the first time, providing evidence that gravity affects antimatter in the same way as ordinary matter, Israel's Ben Gurion University (BGU) said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement said the findings, published in the journal Nature, confirm a key component of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity known as the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), which requires that all masses react identically to gravity, independent of their internal structure.

The WEP has been tested to high precision for ordinary matter, but it has been difficult to test for antimatter because of its rarity and difficulty to produce.

In the new study, the scientists used a particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to create antihydrogen atoms.

The scientists then trapped the antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic field trap and cooled them to a very low temperature.

To measure the free fall of the antihydrogen atoms, the scientists released them from the trap and measured the time it took them to fall a certain distance. They found that the acceleration of the antihydrogen atoms was the same as the acceleration of ordinary matter atoms.

"The research findings are a milestone in the study of the properties and behavior of antimatter," said the BGU statement, adding that one of the BGU faulty, Eli Sarid, participated in the crucial study.

Meanwhile, the CERN said in a statement that "this is the first direct experiment" to actually observe a gravitational effect on the motion of antimatter, adding that it's a milestone in the study of antimatter, "which still mystifies us due to its apparent absence in the Universe." Enditem

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