Earth is being battered by cosmic rays and no one knows why

Too much antimatter has been pummeling Earth.

But don't worry, we're not all going to die (from this, anyway). Everyone is just suffering from intense confusion.

Scientists are struggling to explain the phenomenon - which makes things more intriguing.

The mystery surfaced back in 2008 when an unusually high number of positrons - the antimatter cousins of electrons - were found to be orbiting Earth.

Pulsars - neutron stars the spin incredibly quickly - were initially thought to be the most likely suspects as the originators of this antimatter - but they are not the cause, a new study has found.

Researchers at the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-Ray Observatory in Mexico ruled out the stars as the source because the positrons would have lost too much energy to have an impact.

Study lead Jordan Goodman, a physics professor at the University of Maryland, said in a statement:

This new measurement is tantalizing because it strongly disfavors the idea that these extra positrons are coming to Earth from two nearby pulsars.

The next theory to test is that dark matter is the source of the antimatter.

Goodman said:

Our measurement doesn't decide the question in favor of dark matter, but any new theory that attempts to explain the excess using pulsars will need to account for what we've found.

HT IFLScience / New Scientist

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