Large Hadron Collider

[Geekyfanboy]

Worst Case: Collider Spawns Planet-Devouring Black Hole
Anne Minard for National Geographic News
September 9, 2008

With the Large Hadron Collider firing up for the first time Wednesday, some critics have speculated that the world's biggest atom smasher could spawn a black hole that would devour Earth.

Most physicists respond that the collider is safe and even necessary for the advancement of humankind

But what if they're wrong?

What exactly would happen if the 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel under pastoral France and Switzerland opened up a black hole—or black holes?

The Planet Eater

Physicists across the globe are on the edges of their seats, but not because they're worried about a Franco-Swiss black hole.

In recreating the conditions present a trillionth of a second after the big bang, the collider could reveal the nature of dark matter, thought to provide structure throughout the universe, scientists say. The machine could also unmask a theoretical but as yet unseen particle, called Higgs boson—or the "God particle"—that is believed to give other particles their mass.

There's also a very, very remote chance that the process will spawn black holes—any one of which could assume an odd orbit within Earth, devouring microscopic chunks of matter until the entire planet is gone, physicists say.

This and other harrowing—and equally unlikely—scenarios prompted a couple of independent scientists to sue this past spring to stop the atom smasher. So far they haven't succeeded, and the vast majority of the world's physicists are on board with the project.

"Global Cultural Genocide"

Luis Sancho and Walter L. Wagner, independent astrophysicists in Hawaii, petitioned the U.S. District Court in Honolulu, Hawaii last spring to stop the progress of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

In court dockets, the pair call the atom smasher a "dark matter factory" that will spawn self-propelled bombs, "that is, substances, which actively attract and transform our normal matter and whose strength is such that once they become stable they cannot be controlled or destroyed by human beings.

"It is thus extremely dangerous to produce any quantities of strange matter or black holes on Earth."

Allowing the collider to proceed amounts to "global cultural genocide," the plaintiffs alleged.

The Hawaii court has not ruled on the case. The European Court of Human Rights rejected a similar case, brought by German chemist Otto Rössler, earlier this month.

One Hungry Golf Ball

To form black holes, the Large Hadron Collider would need to generate many billions of times more energy than it can, according to Jonathan Feng, a theoretical particle physicist at the University of California, Irvine.

And even if black holes formed, he said, they would be smaller than protons—which fit in the nuclei of atoms—and would evaporate in a miniscule fraction of a second, "long before they could grow by [absorbing] other matter," he wrote.

"Thus, even if black holes are produced at the LHC, they will not annihilate the Earth."

But Feng was willing to lay out his worst-case scenario, he said, "as long as we make it very clear we're going off the deep end."

If a black hole did form and begin eating Earth, there would be no spectacular display, Feng said.

"This tiny little black hole grows little by little and starts eating up the Earth," he said.

"It has to loop back, and it's a little bit like a comet that has an orbit that keeps going through the Earth."

After absorbing the entire Earth—how long it would take is unclear—the black hole would be nearly the size a golf ball but would have the same mass as Earth did before it was gobbled up.

The baby black hole would simply take Earth's place in the solar system, Feng said.

"The moon would be orbiting around this little 'golf ball,' and the other planets would orbit just as they are now," he added.

And even with the most sophisticated of observational techniques, potential intelligent beings in another galaxy would be oblivious to the change.

The lights of Earth would of course be gone, "but the fact is that no one [in another galaxy] can see that anyway," because the illumination is simply too faint for intergalactic detection.

But Seriously, Folks

University of Michigan research scientist Steven Goldfarb participates in one of the research programs using the Large Hadron Collider.

He said there's "zero probability of forming the types of scary scenarios that are being talked about."

Still, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which operates the atom smasher, took its safety mandate seriously during the planning and 14-year construction process, he said.

CERN conducted an independent safety report, and an independent committee checked it.

"A committee of experts not on the LHC, including Nobel laureates, have said the findings are sound," Goldfarb said.

The collider experiments will mimic what has already happened a hundred thousand times when cosmic rays have bombarded Earth, Goldfarb said. If any of the feared possibilities were real risks, then continuous, natural cosmic ray assaults would have destroyed the planet long ago, he added.

In short, Goldfarb, who is based in France near the collider, isn't worried.

"My wife and two children live there," he said, "and they are not going to leave when we turn on the LHC."

[Bryancd]

LOL! That's too funny...and very unlikely.

[Geekyfanboy]

True.. but it's still kind of scary none the less.

[Bryancd]

When the lit off the first atomic bomb at Trinity, some were convinced it would cause a nuclear chain reaction in Earth's atmosphere, destroying all life. Back then, I bet not even Oppenheimer knew for sure!

[Trekkygeek]

But go on, admit it, you were also checking the skies above when they switched it on, weren't you?  ;)

[Geekyfanboy]

LHC Fired-Up, Shoots, Scores — Let the Collider Games Begin
September 10, 2008 by Sam Sloan   || Category: Science News

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2008/09/10/lhc-fired-up-shoots-scores-let-the-collider-games-begin/

14 years and $10 billion later ($30 billion less than what China expended on the Olympic Games), the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) got its start switch hit today and so begins a new age in scientific exploration and achievment. However, it will take a good year for the LHC to reach its maximum power capability.

Scientists at Europe's CERN HQ are excited at the prospects of diving head-long into areas of physics, that less than a decade ago were only theories and equations on a chalk board. Now with the first firing up of the LHC, these and future generations of quantum physicists will be able to work first-hand on what was once only in the minds of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Stephen Hawking and other great leaders of science. past and current.

Some of those areas of research will include the exploration of dark matter, anitmatter, the possiblity of alternate universes, parallel universes and different dimensions of space/time.

Sitting in the CERN center located in Geneva, Switzerland was an array of scientists, political dignitaries from across the globe and journalists who spent several hours anxiously awaiting the flip of the switch. All went without a hitch and now the real business of research can begin.

"Today is a great day for CERN," the organization's director general, Robert Aymar, told the gathering and control room staff.

As the beam was aligned along its 100-meter deep, 17-mile long tunnel constant checks were made to ensure safety and all was going well. A round of roaring applause echoed in the room when the head of operations gave the thumbs up at the completion of the beams first full clockwise run of the tunnel. The beam's trip, from preliminary check to the end of its run, took about an hour total. Once completed then the beam was successfully sent in the opposite direction. The big day will occur sometime next month (or later) when two beams will be sent in opposite directions, meeting in a collision that, hopefully, will mock — on an infinitesimally smaller scale — a mini-big bang, the event most theorize was the cause of and beginning of our universe. Some of the other things that could occur would be the creation of harmless, atom-sized black holes that could be studied in a way not currently possible.

"It's a fantastic moment," Lyn Evans, the project leader for the Large Hadron Collider, said once the beam had completed its circuit. "We can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe."

[Darth Gaos]

LOL! That's too funny...and very unlikely.

I'm with Kenny on this one.

Exciting scientific possibilites to be sure but if we are talking about the possible destruction of the ENTIRE EARTH...."very unlikely" would not be comforting.

[metron07]

Black hole sun
Wont you come
And wash away the rain
Black hole sun
Wont you come
Wont you come

Soundgarden

Ah, the 90's

[billybob476]

Black hole sun
Wont you come
And wash away the rain
Black hole sun
Wont you come
Wont you come

Soundgarden

Ah, the 90's

Ha, well...it's here.

[billybob476]

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

Keep your eyes on this site people.

[Darth Gaos]

LOL....that's awesome billybob!

[Trekkygeek]

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

Keep your eyes on this site people.

Very good mate. Very good.  ;D

[Geekyfanboy]

Large Hadron Collider breaks during first full test
Written by Derek Kessler on Thursday, 02 October 2008
   
Large Hadron ColliderProbing the secrets of science was supposed to get easier when the Large Hadron Collider in Europe was switched on earlier this month. Instead, the $10 billion, 27 km (17 mile), super-cooled atom smasher broke during the first test, a setback that will delay any further experimentation until the spring of next year. Buried 100 meters (330 feet) below the CERN particle physics center on the border of France and Switzerland, the collider was 14 years in the making and since conception had been sparking fears of inducing doomsday by creating a micro black hole of magnetic monopole or other such theoretical Earth-destroying phenomena.
   
After flipping the switch, the massive experiment sent a beam of protons at 299 792.455 km/s (186 282.395 miles/s) around the entire loop, reaching within 3 m/s (9.8 ft/s) of the speed of light. Said Lyn Evans, the LHC project leader, "It's a fantastic moment. We can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe." But even as the celebratory champagne flowed, the engineers behind the scenes became aware of a depressing situation. It wasn't a miniature black hole or anything so disastrous, but the LHC broke.

In order to maximize space use, ring particle colliders such as the LHC have to use giant superconducting magnets to bend the path of the atomic projectiles; if built in a straight line the LHC would need a tunnel that would stretch from Earth to Neptune - and back again. 1800 such magnets are installed in the LHC, and they have to be cooled to a point so close to absolute zero that they're actually colder than the average temperature of outer space (1.9° K, -271.25° C, or -456.25° F). During a cooling test in March 2007, a flaw in the design of the LHC caused on of the braces holding a massive magnet to fail and it fell into the tunnel. The accident delayed the LHC's activation by 10 months to allow for repairs and corrections to the entire collider.

As it would turn out, the LHC broke anyway. A faulty electrical connection between two of the electromagnets caused them to stop superconducting. The connection subsequently melted from the power overload to the point that it opened the tunnel and the helium used in the cooling process escaped. To repair it, the entire sector of the collider damaged must be warmed to a temperature in which humans can operate, and once fixed must be cooled back down again. The damage has put the LHC out of commission for at least two months, and possibly into the spring of 2009.

Such failures happen frequently with particle colliders, but the LHC is unique in both its size and the power of its cooling system. Most of colliders work at more reasonable temperatures and could be repaired within a few days, but it will take several weeks just to warm up the damaged section of the LHC (warming it too quickly could further damage the structure). And then, of course, several more weeks to cool it down again.

[Jen]

I remember when the plan was to build that gizmo here in Texas. They even had a contest to name it... It was going to be called "The Superconducting Super Collider."

[billybob476]

The should have called it the super duper superconducting super collider!