Has it been observed? Is it just theoretical? Is it one of those simple-but-profound things?
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Energy can spontaneously change into mass. There are nuclear and radiation related processes where this can occur.
A good example is “pair production”. A photon, if it has sufficient energy, can convert into a pair of an electron and positron. The photon needs to have enough energy to cover the energy-mass conversion and nay excess goes into kinetic energy of the particles. Ote that this doesn’t happen spontaneously, it requires the photon to pass extremely close to an atonic nucleus where there is a very strong electromagnetic field, which can trigger the conversion.
Similar, but more complex process can occur at even higher energies.
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