Antimatter is described as the analogue to normal matter, much like the flipped image of your face when you look in the mirror. In many ways, particles of antimatter appear to resemble their normal counterparts up until the moment when the two meet. When antimatter and matter particles meet, they completely and utterly annihilate one another, releasing in the process vast amounts of pure energy. Particle physicists can use these volatile collisions to break down particles or create new ones in special machines.