The most expensive substance on Earth costs an astonishing $5.24 quadrillion per gram.

The most expensive substance on Earth could cost $5.24 quadrillion for just one gram. The issue is that there may not even be a gram of this material anywhere in the entire universe, reports DailyMail.

Unlike precious metals or stones, this substance cannot simply be mined from the ground. It must be gathered atom by atom in a process that could take a billion years to collect just one-tenth of a gram.

This may sound like the plot of a science fiction movie, but antimatter atoms are actually considered the most valuable and extremely rare material on Earth. The problem is that antimatter disappears almost immediately after it is created, making its storage and study incredibly costly.

Atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, and subatomic particles in the observable universe are made up of matter. However, for each of these particle types, there exists antimatter, which is the same particle but with an opposite electric charge. Such particles can be combined into anti-atoms, anti-molecules, and even entire planets or galaxies.

Many years ago, NASA scientist Harold Jerish calculated the price of antimatter to be $62.5 trillion, or $1.75 quadrillion per ounce. Its value is based on the amount of energy expended and the estimated production capabilities.

"We produce such a negligible amount of antimatter that even in a year we wouldn't be able to gather enough to boil a cup of tea. One hundredth of a nanogram of antimatter costs as much as one kilogram of gold," says theoretical physicist Professor Michael Doser from CERN.

This means that the price per gram would be approximately $5.24 quadrillion.

At CERN, scientists use enormous particle accelerators to accelerate a stream of protons and positively charged particles that then collide with an iridium block. Once in a million attempts, a massive amount of energy concentrates in a particle of matter, and along with it, a twin of antimatter is born.

The resulting particles are then pumped into the Antiproton Decelerator, which uses powerful magnets to concentrate the antimatter into a stream moving at one-tenth the speed of light.

This entire process consumes an incredibly large amount of energy. CERN's particle accelerators account for about 90% of the research center's annual electricity bill of 1250 gigawatts.

During this process, a very small amount of antimatter is created: nanograms per year. However, creating antimatter is not the most challenging step, as antimatter is annihilated upon first contact with regular matter.

To prevent the annihilation of newly formed antimatter, it must be carefully held in a supercooled state by magnets within a complete vacuum. The current record for storing antimatter is 405 days for individual particles and just 17 minutes for entire anti-atoms.

As a reminder, antimatter engines could allow us to reach the stars in just a few years. It is believed that with antimatter engines, one could reach Pluto in just a few weeks.