ScienceAugust 16, 2026

meson

MEZ-on

Definition

A type of subatomic particle that is composed of one quark and one antiquark, belonging to the larger family of particles known as hadrons.

Etymology

The term was coined in 1939 from the Greek 'mesos', meaning 'middle', because the particle was originally theorized to have a mass between that of an electron and a proton.

In the news

In the article, the meson is identified as the class of particle to which the kaon belongs. The researchers are studying the specific, rare ways these mesons decay to determine if current physical models are sufficient.

Something Weird Happened That We Can’t Really Explain With Existing Physics

Read the full article ↗

Popular Mechanics

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