Before explaining what antiatoms are, it would benefit some of our readers to explain what particles and antiparticles are. These three particles, together with a wide variety of other more obscure particles, are the basis for all matter. The dual of the electron is called the positron, while the duals of the proton and the neutron are simply called antiprotons and antineutrons.
Antiparticles behave very much the same as ordinary particles.
They have the same mass as their particle counterparts, but the charge of an antiparticle is opposite the charge of the corresponding particle. Just as protons, electrons, and neutrons often cluster together to form atoms, antiprotons, positrons, and antineutrons can combine to form antiatoms. The properties of antimatter are very similar to that of normal matter. While only very basic antiatoms like antihydrogen have been made in laboratories, some scientists believe that there may be entire galaxies composed almost entirely of antimatter. Perhaps the most interesting thing about antimatter is what it does when it comes in contact with normal matter.